Gandhiji Inspired Millions, But Who Was His Inspiration? Inside the Life and Times of Shrimad Rajchandraji and the Saint Carrying Forward His Legacy

As India marks Gandhi Jayanti, a look at the young poet-philosopher Gandhi called his "refuge" in moments of spiritual crisis, and the teacher who has brought his wisdom to a new generation. In his autobiography, Mahatma Gandhi names three modern thinkers who left a deep mark on his life. Two of them are famous across the world: Leo Tolstoy, through his book The Kingdom of God Is Within You, and John Ruskin, through Unto This Last.

The third is far less known outside Gujarat. He was not a writer Gandhi read but a man he knew personally, a young poet from Saurashtra whom Gandhi called Raychandbhai. He is remembered today as Shrimad Rajchandraji. Gandhi gave him an entire chapter of The Story of My Experiments with Truth, and wrote: “In my moments of spiritual crisis, Shrimadji was my refuge.”

A meeting in Mumbai

The two first met in Mumbai in 1891. Gandhi had just returned from England as a young barrister, unsure of himself and still finding his way. Shrimadji was only a couple of years older, yet already known for his learning, his command of the scriptures and his remarkable calm.

Over the next two years in Mumbai, the friendship deepened. Gandhi watched him closely and was struck by how untouched he seemed by the world around him, even while running a busy jewellery business. "Whatever he was doing at the moment, whether eating or resting or lying in bed, he was invariably uninterested in things of the world," Gandhi later wrote. “I never saw him being tempted by objects of pleasure or luxury in this world.”

Who was Shrimad Rajchandraji?

Born in 1867 in Vavania, in present-day Gujarat, Shrimadji lived just 34 years. In that short life, he left behind a large body of letters, poems and philosophical writing. His best-known work is Shri Atmasiddhi Shastra, a 142-verse composition on the nature of the soul, which he wrote in a single sitting in 1896. It is still studied and recited by seekers across the world.

He is revered as a Jain philosopher. However, his central idea reached beyond any single tradition: true religion is whatever helps a person realise their own true nature. 

Twenty-seven questions from Durban

The most remarkable chapter of the friendship unfolded by post. In South Africa, Gandhi went through a period of deep inner turmoil over faith and identity. He wrote to Shrimadji from Durban with 27 questions: What is the soul? What is God? What is liberation? Can a person know, while still alive, whether they are on the path to freedom?

Shrimadji's reply was prompt and detailed. On the soul, he argued that consciousness could never come from any combination of matter, however complex. On liberation, he used a homely image. If a rope is wound many times around a person's arms and the twists are loosened one by one, they feel each twist loosen until the rope falls away. The soul, he wrote, grows aware of its progress towards freedom in the same way, and freedom can be experienced even while living.

When Gandhi asked which religion was the best, Shrimadji said such claims must be tested, not taken on faith. He defined the "noble path" as simply the one that enables the soul to realise its true nature, whatever name it goes by.

On non-violence, he was unequivocal. It is always sinful, he wrote, to kill or injure a living creature, even in the name of a religious sacrifice. Violence and non-violence have both always existed in the world, he noted. The real question is which one serves the welfare of the soul.

According to the Mission, the answers settled Gandhi's doubts and encouraged him to look deeper into his own faith.

‘The way of compassion’

Gandhi never forgot what he had learnt. Speaking in Ahmedabad in November 1921, he said he had learnt from the lives of many people, “But it is from Kavishri (Shrimadji's) life that I have learnt the most. It was from His life that I understood the way of compassion.”

Truth, compassion and non-violence, the values Gandhi saw lived out in Shrimadji, would later sit at the heart of his own philosophy and of India's freedom struggle. Gandhi's non-violence, in turn, inspired movements far beyond India. Martin Luther King Jr. drew on it in the fight for civil rights in the United States, and Nelson Mandela cited Gandhi as an inspiration in South Africa. It is a ripple that began, at least in part, with conversations in Mumbai and letters to Durban.

Even after Shrimadji died in 1901, Gandhi kept returning to his letters. In a 1909 letter to his associate H.S.L. Polak, he called Shrimadji "the best Indian of His times." More than two decades later, in 1930, he wrote that Shrimadji had “captivated my heart in religious matters as no other man has till now.”

Carrying the legacy forward

For decades, Shrimadji's story was known mainly to scholars and devotees. That has changed largely through the work of Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshji, who has spent his life studying, living and sharing Shrimadji's teachings.

Born in Mumbai in 1966, Gurudevshri was drawn to Shrimadji from childhood. He went on to earn an M.A. in Philosophy with a gold medal. His doctoral treatise on Shrimadji’s magnum opus Shri Atmasiddhi Shastra ran past 3,000 pages, and the University of Mumbai conferred the doctorate in 1998.

He founded Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur in 1994. In 2001 he established its ashram at Dharampur in South Gujarat, a place where Shrimadji himself had spent time in sadhana. The 355-acre ashram is now the Mission's International Headquarters, with 136 centres across six continents. Gurudevshri, who turned 60 last week, decodes Shrimadji's teachings in simple language for modern audiences, including a large following of young people.

Under his guidance, Shrimadji has received wider public recognition:
* Commemorative coins and stamps. On 29 June 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi released them to mark Shrimadji's 150th birth anniversary at Gandhi's own Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, with Gurudevshri present.
* Portraits of Shrimadji and Gandhi together. They have been unveiled at places linked to Gandhi's life, from Yerwada Central Jail in Pune and the Gandhi Smriti Museum in Rajkot to Kingsley Hall in London. Shrimadji's portrait also hangs at Mani Bhavan in Mumbai.
* A university chair. The University of California, Riverside, has a Shrimad Rajchandra Chair.
* A school textbook. Gujarat's Class 10 Gujarati textbook includes a chapter on him.
* Yugpurush – Mahatma na Mahatma. The Mission's award-winning play on the bond between Shrimadji and Gandhi has taken the story to audiences across the world.

Compassion in action

The lesson Gandhi said he learnt from Shrimadji, the way of compassion, is also the one the Mission lives by today. Its guiding principle is to realise one's true self and serve others selflessly. Through its humanitarian arm, Shrimad Rajchandra Love and Care, which holds Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, it runs charitable hospitals, schools, women's livelihood programmes and animal care across India and abroad.

As Gurudevshri puts it, the Masters don't only talk of dharma, they are an embodiment of dharma. On Gandhi Jayanti, as the nation remembers the Mahatma, it may be worth remembering the quiet poet-philosopher who helped shape him.