SHRIMADJI embodied life was comparitively very short. HE was born in 1868 A.D. in a place known as Vavania in Gujrat (INDIA) and died at the age of 33.
During this short span of life, HE saw the Truth face to face and taught the Truth to his blessed worshippers, one of whom was Mahatma Gandhi. Few people know that the man of the greatness of Mahatma Gandhi was so captivated in spiritual and religious matters by this seer of Truth as by no other man. Mahatma Gandhi came in contact with many religious heads. He tried to meet Heads of each religion, but none could create the impression on him which SHRIMAD RAJCHANDRA did. HIS influence on Mahatma Gandhi was deeper than even that of Tolstoy and Ruskin. That is why it is said that the writings of SHRIMAD RAJCHANDRA , mostly in letters , help a good deal in understanding correctly what Mahatma Gandhi stood for and preached on the spiritual and religious side.
A respectable, honest businessman in outward life, HIS inner life was of a Saint. HE was a partner in a firm dealing in gems. HE knew HIS job very well as a jeweller and carried the burden of big business operations in India as well as outside. There was a rare combination of right businessmanship with true religion in HIM. HE disproved the notion of the business world that a successful businessman cannot remain strictly ethical.
HE was a real follower of Jina, who conquered passion of attachment, aversion and ignorance and attained absolute purity and perfection. HE never gave importance to caste or creed of birth in the path of liberation. HE had true experience, knowledge and belief of self, distinct from the embodied existence and HIS concious attentiveness was found eager to flow in the self, even in the midst of big business transactions.
HE had an extraordinary memory. HIS mind was able to function in hundred directions at a time. HE was therefore known as Shatavadhani. HE had good control over words, both in speech and writing. It is said that HE hardly scored what HE wrote. HE had always at HIS command the right word at the right place. Every word and every action of HIS had the mark of HIS greatness, poise, dignity, character, discipline, and earnest striving for liberation and perfection of soul. Though not known to the other parts of the world, HE was unique, a mass of many pure states of qualities in human body, actually living on the face of the earth.
HE was an Atma-Gnani, a knower of self, and HIS state of existence was without attachment for a position, wealth, fame and even the body, though in embodied condition.
The path of happiness and liberation from unhappiness is mostly disappearing in the present time, without knowing the real nature of self which is infinite knowledge and infinite happiness itself. Most of the beings of the world are in the wrong quest. A millionaire with all the so-called means of happiness, namely, a position in life, a fine house with all the amenities to staying, a beautiful or handsome mate, is seen in search of happiness. So also a wretched being, may be human or animal, is found toiling for it. If one knows about the plight of a hellish being or a celestial being, it is also the same-desire or greed for more happiness. Thus it is an universally acknowledged fact that every being is desirous of finding happiness and getting rid of unhappiness. He is not satisfied with what he has. If one has set a target of a million and gets it; if one has a desire to reach a particular position and reaches it; if one has a desire to get a particular “He” or “She” as a mate and gets it; if one has a desire to get a particular house and gets it ; then his or her desire must end. But this is not what we experience in life. On the contrary, on the fulfilment of a desire, a new desire emerges resulting in unhappiness till it is satisfied. Such chain of desire continues.
This situation must raise questions to thoughtful persons as to what is real happiness? What is un happiness? What is liberation from unhappiness? Unless one has real answers to these questions, there is no meaning in indulging in desire for happiness or desire to get rid of unhappiness.
In fact the ordinary man has no such question, because to his conditioned mind, happiness means the enjoyment of the above-stated enjoyable objects. All these and like objects are believed by him as the means of happiness and therefore all his efforts are directed to achieve more and more of them. So in the discourses about advancement of happiness, it is said to toil hard for more produce from the land, from industry, from handicrafts, etc. for acquiring good food, good clothings, good houses and other good amenities. It is said that all will be happy only then. We do not question here whether all these would be acquired or not. But the question is whether one will really be happy even by acquiring these objects of sensual pleasures. If the answer to this question is affirmative, then in the countries which have reached the highest limits of prosperity and abundance of all these means of happiness, all the peoplemust be happy. But this is not so in reality. A considerable number of people there is found with fear, with confusion, with anxiety, with unhappiness and without peace of mind.
It is therefore imperative for all the thinking world to contemplate on the question as to what is happiness is in reality. Without its correct solution, the people will not be able to make endeavour in the right direction and achieve the real happiness.
Some people say that if the desires are satisfied, the real happiness arises and if they are not satisfied, unhappiness, impatience or confusion arises. They, therefore, want to do this or that for making the changes or modifications in the condition of other substances either living or non-living, so that their desires are fulfilled and the desired substances are acquired. But the modification in the condition of other substance or its acquisition is not the result of the desire of any person. It is the effect, the cause of which is that substance itself. When the desire of the person and the occurrence of the particular modification in the other substance coincide, there is a delusion in ignorant person that he has satisfied his desire by making modification in the other substance or by its acquisition.
From the study of ‘Atma-Siddhi’ an aspirant for self-realisation attains the knowledge of all these aspects about self, about happiness and about the path for self realisation and liberation.
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