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GURUDEV SHRI CHITRABHANUJI
Sessions: • QUESTIONING AUTHORITY... presented with SATISH KUMAR
LISTEN TO AN EXPERIENCED JAIN • QUESTIONING AUTHORITY... presented with the SAMANJIS
How does the lifestyle of a sadhu or sadhvi differ from that of a layperson? . Why should one give up things like clothes and head hair if they are not attached to it, but rather retain them to conform to society? Are sadhus and sadhvis guaranteed human birth for the next life?
In 1970 Gurudev Chitrabhanu was the first monk to establish Ahinsa and reverence for Life in the western world. His life story is an account of how he touched thousands of lives in a new land.
Gurudev was born Rup-Rajendra Shah on July 26, 1922 in a village in Rajasthan, India. He attended college at Bangalore and earned a degree in psychology. His spirit of adventure and idealism lead him to meet Mahatma Gandhi whose Ahinsa-approach to the British had touched him. Young Rup-Rajendra was once beaten by a British policeman for participating in India's Freedom Movement. Rup found forgiving the officer who had hurt him a very moving experience. Something happened that day.
Initiation The seed of Ahinsa flowered in the religious soil of his father's home. He began to seek out masters who could enlighten him to receive answers to his perplexity about the mystery of death. Foremost in his mind were the deaths of his mother when he was age four, of his sister when he was twelve, and of his closest friend whose father, even as a doctor, could not save her. He found the renowned Jain master Acharya Sagaranand Surishvarji at Palitana. Inspired by him, RupRajendra took Diksha (initiation) on February 6, 1942 at the age of 20 and became a Jain monk. For the next 29 years he would be known as Muni Chandraprabha Sagarji, the change in name traditionally signifying a change in life. In extraordinary solidarity, his father in Tumkur soon became a monk as well.
Training As a young monk, he started his rigorous training under the illustrious guru. He began to learn Sanskrit and Prakrit. He studied the Agamas (Jain scriptures), the Yoga Shastra, and Comparative Religion. He learned the art of healing and he trained himself to control mind by overcoming danger, fear, and jealousy - the powerful enemies of man.
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