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Chapter 3

Shrimad Rajchandra

A Many-Faceted Diamond of a Man

Rajchandra, whom Gandhi praised and appraised as a “diamond connoisseur,” was himself a many-faceted diamond of a man with myriad, miraculous gifts and talents. As shown in the earlier chapter, Gandhi had tested so far only one of those talents—his phenomenal photographic memory as a “shatavadhani,” or one who could remember and attend to a hundred things at a time. Though Gandhi was impressed, he was not inspired. And yet, he was curious to know more about the poet’s other amazing powers, such as his ability to attend simultaneously to many different things at a time. Below is a description of one such show or exhibit, as reported in the Times of India (January 27, 1887):

“A large number of native gentlemen assembled on Saturday at the “Faramji Cowasji Institution” to witness an exhibition of the mnemonic powers of a young Hindoo, named Rajchandra Ravjibhai Mehta of about 19 years of age. Dr. Peterson presided on the occasion. Ten gentlemen of different castes were selected from the audience to form a committee and they all wrote out sentences composed of six words into different languages. Each one in turn gave one word of his sentence, oftentimes varying the order of the words. After a time the young Hindoo reproduced to the surprise of his audience, the entire sentences giving the order of words from memory.”

The young man also seemed to have a remarkable sense of perception by touch or feeling. He was first shown about a dozen books of various sizes and was informed of the names of those books. The man was then blindfolded, and he gave out the names of each of those books by feeling with hand. “Dr. Peterson congratulated and presented him with a gold medal on behalf of the Jain community.”

Rajchandra was also far ahead of his time in the art of what’s called today, “multitasking.” Among other examples of his exceptional ability to attend to and perform various tasks all at once are: playing “chopat” (Indian game of cards) with three different players and at the end calling out all thirteen cards he had; at the same time, he was counting money, solving math problems, and composing or finishing a poem of which only the first two lines were given to him. The ease and humility with which the young poet simultaneously accomplished these various tasks left the audience not only spellbound but also with their heads bowed in respect.

Shrimad’s Exceptional Linguistic
and Literary Talents

Poet Rajchandra seemed to be a child prodigy to whom learning poems by heart, reciting, reflecting, writing, and speaking came as naturally as breathing! That way, he was a precocious child who started writing poems around the age of seven, and at age nine, he is said to have composed poems on the Ramayana and Mahabharata (the two great Hindu epics). Not yet in high school, the little boy Rajchandra began to win prizes for his poems and essays. At age sixteen, he wrote the book Stri Niti Bodhaka, or “The Moral Guidance for Women” (1884). The other two books—Mokshamala (1887), or “The Rosary of Liberation,” and Bhavana-bodh (1887)—were like preludes to his later masterpiece Atma-Siddhi Shastra (1896), which the adult Gandhi would begin to translate later but would be lost during this travels. Moreover, Rajchandra had built up his reputation as a scholar of the scholars, or “Maha-jnani” (maha: great, and jnani: learned) who had studied major world scriptures and earned the unofficial title of Sakshat Saraswatichandra—“an incarnation of Devi Saraswati”—the Goddess of Knowledge!

“Jati-smaran-jnana,” or
“Knowledge of the Past Lives”

As the story goes, once, as a little boy (between the ages of seven to nine), Rajchandra witnessed a traditional Hindu-style cremation ceremony (where a dead body is put up on a funeral pyre or logs of wood for being consumed by fire) of Amichand Sheth—his dear friend—who had died suddenly of a serpent bite. Being acutely grief-stricken yet also highly reflective, the little Rajchandra (like the inquisitive little boy Nachiketa in the Katha Upanishad) was burning with many questions about life, death, and if there was life after death, so he turned to his father or uncle for the answers. None of their answers, however, satisfied the boy except for their suggestion that he may find out for himself by going into deep meditation, called samadhi. Following their suggestion, Rajchandra immersed himself into deep contemplation in which he could vividly see all the past lives of not only his deceased friend, but also his own previous lives. Astonishingly, at such a tender age, Rajchandra was capable of grasping the truth that death is not the end of life, that it’s only the body which dies and not the soul, that it is only a transitioning of the soul from one life to another and yet another and so on until it achieves moksha or liberation from the cycle of births and deaths. Thus, through samadhi, the spiritually advanced little boy Rajchandra learned (i) about the immortality of the soul and the continuity of life and (ii) about the futility of mourning for death.

Telepathy and Clairvoyance

The family, friends, followers, and community at large also bore witness to the poet’s other amazing powers of telepathy and clairvoyance! For example, once the poet’s admirer and follower Shri Saubhagbhai Lallubhai Sheth, who was far older than Rajchandra, had planned a surprise visit to the poet’s residence “to reveal to him the secret spiritual knowledge called the “Elusive Key,” or “Beej Jnana!” Despite knowing nothing about the Sheth’s secret meeting plan, Rajchandra had “a premonition of his coming,” acting on which, upon Saubhagbhai’s arrival, the poet greeted him by his name as if they had met before. Not only that, but Rajchandra also showed the Sheth “a pre-written note about why he wanted to come and see the poet!” Since then, Shri Saubhagbhai Sheth was totally convinced about Rajchandra’s superior spiritual status, and now accepting him as his Guru, Sheth Saubhagbhai also established an ashram in Gujarat in his Guru’s name, “Shree Raj Saubhag Ashram,” which still exists.

Rajchandra in a State of Divine Discontent

Strangely enough, none of these worldly achievements and not even his meteoric rise to material success—name, fame, wealth, or power—seemed to satisfy the soul of this multitalented teenager. At the prime of his youth and at the zenith of his popularity, Rajchandra admitted to have felt a “Buddha-like” dispassion or “vairagya” toward all material aspects of life. And yet, unlike Buddha, instead of renouncing the world, Rajchandra decided to stay in the world. Though he opted for marriage at the age of twenty, and also efficiently oversaw his diamond shop business, he remained as unattached as the proverbial lotus flower—floating above the water, not immersed in it!

Rajchandra, not yet twenty-five, was in such a state of divine discontent, when he was first introduced to Gandhi as a “Kavi” or a poet. He had willingly given up all his public performances and demonstrations of his numerous, miraculous gifts and powers. Becoming more and more detached, he was fast advancing on the path of a deep spiritual search for Truth, for self-perfection, and Self-realization. The poet’s ultimate goal was to achieve moksha, or liberation from the “samsara-chakra” (cycle of births and deaths) while trying at the same time to realize his true self. The fact that Rajchandra could focus so intently upon his spiritual striving, or sadhana, despite remaining in the world and without shirking his duties intrigued Mohandas Gandhi so much that he would want to know more from near about this spiritual side of the poet.