The Jain 1988 07

Author(s): Natubhai Shah
Publisher: UK Jain Samaj Europe

Page 57

SHRIMAD RAJCHANDRA
Shrimad Rajchandra had a short life, yet in that brief space of less than 34 years (1867-1901) he achieved much and left behind him the memory of a very great soul and an example which has inspired many to follow him. He was born in early November 1867 in a small seaport town or village called Vavania, lying on the northern coast of Kathiawar, or Saurashtra, now the western part of the state of Gujarat. In those days there were very many small princely states in Kathiawar, and Vavania was in the state of Morvi : the state capital, the town of Morvi, lay about 20 miles inland. Nowadays the sea has receded and Vavania has decayed, but in those days it was a prosperous enough place with a large Vanik, or trading, community. His parents, Rajivbhai and Devbai, were comfortably off, if not wealthy. Rajivbhai followed in the footsteps of his own father as a moneylender, and by hard work and shrewd business acumen he did well. The family belonged to the Dasa Srimali caste and whilst Rajivbhai adhered to the worship of Krishna, his wife was a Jain. Religious boundaries were not regarded as barriers to marriage and intermarriage between Hindus and Jains was by no means, uncommon. Raichand, or Rajchandra, was the second child and elder son. Various stories are told about Raichand's future destiny having been foretold to his mother, indeed miraculous events are attached to other phases of his life. He was a remarkably intelligent child, blessed with a prodigious memory : it is said that he covered the sevenyear school curriculum in two years. His formal education ended when he was eleven years old but he continued the study of Hindi, Sanskrit and Ardha-Magadhi (the language of the oldest Jain scriptures). His native language, of course, was Gujarati, and it was in that language that he wrote the letters and other writings which contained his teachings. He did also start to study English but does not seem to have progressed very far with it. During his late teens Shrimad gave evidence of his remarkable
intellectual powers in contests or exhibitions in which he would carry on a considerable number of intellectual activities simultaneously, a game of chess, a game of cards, counting beads, counting strokes of a bell, and so on, to the number of even a hundred separate simultaneous feats of memory. (It is perhaps not quite correct to use the appellation 'Shrimad' for the youthful Raichand, but his followers were to call him thus in future and it is convenient to use it here). Whilst still in his teens Shrimad was writing regularly on religion and other topics. The age of twenty seems to have marked a watershed, for over the next few years he became convinced that he had a special calling to a spiritual life and he began to attract around himself a band of disciples. In parallel with his developing spiritual life, however, went the normal stages of the secular life. When he was 21 he married a wife, Zabak, and the first of his four children was born a year or so later. He left Kathiawar about this time for Bombay where he entered the jewellery business. He acquired considerable expertise in this field, and the business in which he was a partner operated on a large scale, with oversea connections with the Middle East and Britain. It is well-known that Shrimad Rajchandra had a considerable influence on Mahatma Gandhi. They first met soon after Gandhiji's return to India in 1891 after studying law in England. The younger lawyer was deeply impressed by Shrimad, who was only slightly older than him, and Mahatma Gandhi was later to record his impressions of Shrimad in his Autobiography. He noted Shrimad's wide knowledge of the sacred writings and his religious zeal, as well as his simple habits and carelessness about clothes. He remembered that Shrimad would always have some religious books on his desk to which he would turn in the intervals of business. After the initial contact they met only rarely, for Gandhiji left India shortly afterwards for South Africa, but they corresponded over the years and some letters survive. Perhaps the greatest result of the contact between Shrimad and Gandhiji was that at a period when Gandhi was uncertain of the direction of his faith (he was, perhaps, near conversion to Christianity) Shrimad gave him an anchor and a confirmation of the value of the Indian religious tradition.
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