When Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi returned to India from England in 1891, he was a young barrister burdened with grief-his mother had passed away while he was abroad, and the news had been withheld from him. On the day he arrived in Bombay, amidst personal turmoil and professional uncertainty, he was introduced to a 25-year-old jeweller-poet named Shrimad Rajchandra, whom Gandhi would call Raychandbhai throughout his life. This meeting marked the beginning of a profound spiritual relationship that would shape the moral foundations of the man who would later become the Mahatma.
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The man and his mystique: Rajchandra Rayjibhai Mehta
Shrimad Rajchandra was born in 1867 in Vavaniya, a small port near Morbi in Gujarat. His family background was spiritually diverse-his father Ravjibhai was a Vaishnava Hindu, while his mother Devbai came from a Shvetambara Sthanakvasi Jain family. This interfaith household perhaps laid the groundwork for Rajchandra’s later emphasis on universal spiritual principles rather than sectarian boundaries.
From childhood, Rajchandra displayed extraordinary mental abilities. He was renowned as a Shatavadhani-someone capable of remembering or attending to a hundred things simultaneously. Gandhi witnessed this remarkable faculty firsthand when Dr. Pranjivan Mehta introduced them. Gandhi tested Rajchandra by reciting words from multiple European languages, and the poet repeated them back in the exact order given.
However, Gandhi was quick to note that this memory feat was not what captivated him. In his autobiography, Gandhi wrote that what truly cast a spell over him was Rajchandra’s vast knowledge of scriptures, his spotless character, and most importantly, his burning passion for self-realization. Gandhi observed that Rajchandra’s commercial transactions covered hundreds of thousands, and he was a connoisseur of pearls and diamonds. Yet business was never the centre of his life-that centre was the passion to see God face to face.
A seeker amidst commerce
Rajchandra ran a successful jewellery business in Bombay with his brother-in-law Revashankar Jagjivan Mehta. What made him extraordinary was his ability to balance worldly responsibilities with deep spiritual practice. Gandhi noted that on Rajchandra’s business table, alongside commercial documents, there were always religious books and a diary. The moment business discussions ended, Rajchandra would turn to spiritual writing and contemplation.
This integration of spiritual pursuit within worldly life made a lasting impression on Gandhi. Rajchandra demonstrated that one did not need to renounce the world to pursue truth-a lesson that would later inform Gandhi’s own approach to spirituality as an active participant in society rather than a withdrawn ascetic.
In 1890, at age 23, Rajchandra reportedly experienced self-realization in Bombay. He went on to compose the Atma Siddhi Shastra, a collection of 142 verses explaining the Jain path to liberation, which remains a significant work in Gujarati literature and philosophy. He passed away in 1901 at just 34 years of age, leaving behind over 900 letters that chart his spiritual teachings.
A ‘deep acquaintance’, not an intimate friendship
Gandhi himself described his relationship with Raychandbhai as gaadha parichay-a deep acquaintance rather than an intimate friendship. This distinction is significant. Their direct contact was relatively brief, spanning from 1891 to Rajchandra’s death in 1901. Their correspondence was limited, and their face-to-face meetings were few.
Despite these constraints, Gandhi placed Rajchandra alongside Leo Tolstoy and John Ruskin as one of the three modern influences that left the deepest impress on his life. As Gandhi stated: “Raychandbhai by his living contact; Tolstoy by his book, The Kingdom of God is Within You; and Ruskin by his Unto this Last.” What made Rajchandra’s influence distinct was that it came through personal interaction rather than through writings alone.
Gandhi was explicit about the limits of this relationship. He wrote that though he held Rajchandra in the highest regard, he could not enthrone him as his Guru. The throne, Gandhi said, remained vacant, and his search continued. Gandhi believed deeply in the Hindu concept of the Guru-that true spiritual knowledge required a perfect teacher. Yet he felt that only a perfect gnani (a knowing one, a seer) deserved to be enthroned as Guru, and one must ceaselessly strive to become worthy of such a teacher.
Influence amidst personal crisis
The timing of Gandhi’s first meeting with Raychandbhai was crucial. Gandhi had just learned of his mother’s death. He had returned from England full of hope and aspirations, only to find that his most cherished supporter was no longer alive. He was grieving, physically exhausted from the rough voyage, and facing uncertainty about his professional future.
In this vulnerable state, Rajchandra’s calm equipoise and spiritual depth provided an anchor. Gandhi observed that Rajchandra never lost his state of inner balance. There was no business or selfish tie binding them, yet they developed a close association. Though Gandhi was at the time a briefless barrister without serious interest in religious discussion, he found Rajchandra’s spiritual conversations profoundly absorbing.
The 27 questions that shaped a faith
Perhaps the most significant exchange between them occurred years later when Gandhi was in South Africa. There, Gandhi faced intense pressure from Christian and Muslim friends who urged him to convert to their faiths. In this moment of spiritual crisis, Gandhi turned to Raychandbhai for guidance.
He sent a letter containing 27 questions on fundamental spiritual matters-the existence of the soul, the nature of God, the afterlife, and liberation. These were not casual inquiries but represented Gandhi’s genuine struggle with his religious identity. Rajchandra’s responses came promptly and were, as described by those who studied them, characterized by diamond clarity. The answers addressed questions about whether the soul was the creator of its own consciousness, the nature of spiritual equanimity, and how one might achieve self-realization.
These answers resolved Gandhi’s doubts and restored his faith in Hinduism. There was no longer any question of converting to another faith. Rajchandra had advised Gandhi to be patient and to study Hinduism deeply. This counsel proved transformative-it set Gandhi on a path of understanding his own tradition while remaining respectful of others.
The midwife of Gandhi’s inner being
Some scholars have suggested that Rajchandra acted as a “midwife” for Gandhi’s emerging spiritual self. He did not create Gandhi’s inner convictions but helped bring them to birth. Through their conversations and correspondence, Rajchandra initiated Gandhi into a quest to understand human potential and the nature of the soul.
Gandhi himself acknowledged this influence in various speeches and writings throughout his life. In 1909, in a letter to H.S.L. Polak, he wrote that the more he considered Rajchandra’s life and writings, the more he considered him to have been the best Indian of his times. In a 1921 speech at Ahmedabad, Gandhi declared that of all the lives from which he had learned, it was from Rajchandra’s life that he had learned the most, particularly about the way of compassion.
Distinct paths, lasting influence
It is important to recognize that while Rajchandra’s influence on Gandhi was significant, it was also limited in duration and depth. Their life paths remained fundamentally distinct. Rajchandra was focused on personal liberation and spiritual realization within the Jain tradition. Gandhi would go on to develop a philosophy of active engagement with social and political injustice through satyagraha.
Rajchandra died in 1901, just as Gandhi’s public career was beginning to take shape in South Africa. They never met again after Gandhi left India. Yet Gandhi continued to contemplate Rajchandra’s letters and compositions for the rest of his life. He wrote about Rajchandra, spoke of him in speeches, and discussed him with close associates.
The influence was not one of complete discipleship but rather of guideline and direction. Rajchandra showed Gandhi that spirituality could be practiced amidst worldly responsibilities, that self-realization was the ultimate goal, and that truth and non-violence were foundational virtues. Gandhi took these seeds and cultivated them into a philosophy that would change the world.
A legacy of spiritual mentorship
Today, Rajchandra is revered primarily in Gujarat, where numerous institutions spread his teachings. The Shrimad Rajchandra Mission in Dharampur runs schools, colleges, hospitals, and community development projects in his name. In 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi released a commemorative stamp and coin honoring Rajchandra on his 150th birth anniversary, explicitly acknowledging his role as Gandhi’s spiritual guide.
The relationship between Gandhi and Raychandbhai illustrates something important about spiritual mentorship. It need not be formal or prolonged to be transformative. A few years of association, limited correspondence, and infrequent meetings were enough to leave an indelible mark on one of history’s most influential figures. What mattered was the quality of the connection-the authenticity of the mentor and the openness of the seeker.
Gandhi’s words capture this best: “In my moments of spiritual crisis, he was my refuge… His words went straight home to me. His intellect compelled as great a regard from me as his moral earnestness, and deep down in me was the conviction that he would never willingly lead me astray.”
What do you think? Can a brief but profound relationship shape a person more deeply than years of formal education? How might Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence have developed differently without Raychandbhai’s early influence on his understanding of Indian spiritual traditions?
References
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrimad_Rajchandra
- https://www.mkgandhi.org/autobio/chap26.php
- https://www.theweek.in/theweek/statescan/mahatma-gandhis-mentor-shrimad-rajchandra.html
- https://www.srmd.org/en-US/shrimad-rajchandraji/shrimadji-gandhiji/
- https://www.srmd.org/shrimad-rajchandraji/shrimadji-gandhiji/
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