Decode Politics: What links V-P Dhankhar’s ‘Mahapurush’, ‘Yugpurush’, and a ‘Mahatma’s Mahatma’

Who was Shrimad Rajchandra?

Born to merchant Ravjibhai Mehta and his wife Devba in Vavaniya village of Morbi district in Saurashtra on November 6, 1867, Raichand was raised as a Vaishnav, his father being one. But he was later drawn towards Jainism. Devba was a Jain. As a child, he was fondly called ‘Kavi’ as he wrote poetry. As per the SRMD website, Raichand married Jhabakbai of Morbi in 1888, and took to the jewellery business in Mumbai, as partner in the firm Revashankar Jagjivan. However, around 1896, he renounced worldly life and turned to a life of penance, meditating in the forests of Gujarat and became known as Shrimad Rajchandra. He contracted a serious illness from which he never recovered, and died in 1901 at the young age of 34. His most famous composition is the Atmasiddhi Shastra, comprising 142 verses, which most Jains revere.

Gandhi and Shrimad Rajchandra

Gandhi first met Raichand in Mumbai in 1891, after he returned from England as a barrister. As per the SRMD website, “Shrimadji’s inner equipoise, absorption in spiritual pursuit, knowledge of scriptures and moral earnestness, left a deep-rooted impression on Gandhiji. Their relationship blossomed over profound interactions during the two years in Mumbai.”

Gandhi writes about his association with Raichandbhai in detail in an eponymous chapter in his autobiography, My Experiments with Truth. He had met Raichandbhai in July 1891 through a jeweller family from Rangoon (now Yangon), the capital of British Burma (now Myanmar), where many Gujarati businessmen had set up base. When he went to South Africa, the two exchanged letters regularly.

In his autobiography Gandhi writes about Raychand or Rajchandra, “my first meeting with him convinced me that he was a man of great character and learning. He was also known as shatavadhani (one having the faculty of remembering or attending a hundred things simultaneously)”.

Gandhi has referred to Rajchandra as his “guide and helper” and wrote in the chapter on him, “I have since met many a religious leader or teacher. I have tried to meet the heads of various faiths, and I must say that no one else has ever made on me the impression that Raychandbhai did. His words went straight home to me. Thus, though I could not place Raychandbhai on the throne of my heart as Guru, we shall see he was, on many occasions, my guide and helper”. Rajchandra was among the three things that impressed Gandhi and “captivated him” apart from Leo Tolstoy’s book The Kingdom of God is Within You and John Ruskin’s Unto this Last, he writes.

A play called Yugpurush

The SRMD has produced a play under the guidance of its founder Rakeshbhai, called Yugpurush – Mahatma’s Mahatma, on the life of Shrimad Rajchandra, and on the close bond Gandhi shared with him. As per the play, Gandhi’s ideals of non-violence were inspired by the teachings of Shrimad Rajchandra.

In fact, it was at the Royal Opera House in Mumbai, where Dhankhar made the comparison between Rajchandra and Gandhi, that Yugpurush had its first show, in 2017.

At the time, the SRMD play had done over 900 shows in just over 300 days. It also won the Dadasaheb Phalke Excellence Award 2017 for ‘Best Drama’.

The play was also hosted at the IIM-A as part of their celebration of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi in 2019.

Given the reach of the mission, which has its headquarters in Dharampur in the largely tribal district of Valsad in Gujarat, the play was also staged at the Dolby theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, where the Oscars are held.

Modi and the Mission

As Prime Minister, Narendra Modi had launched a commemorative stamp and coin in the name of Shrimad Rajchandra from the Sabarmati Ashram in 2017, the centenary year of the Ashram and the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s “spiritual mentor”. At this event, Modi had spoken about the deep influence Shrimad Rajchandra had on Gandhi.

In August 2022, Modi inaugurated a multispecialty hospital at the Shrimad Rajchandra Mission’s headquarters in Dharampur.

The mission was founded by the 57-year old Rakeshbhai Jhaveri, born to Jain parents in Mumbai in 1966, who became an ardent follower of Shrimad Rajchandra and set up the ashram in Dharampur in 2001. The Mission has 904 centres across seven continents. After India, the highest numbers of centres are in North America at 47.

It has thousands of followers, especially among Jains and Gujaratis, across the globe.