Background
Shrimad Rajchandra was born on November 9, 1867, in Vavania Bandar, Morbi, Gujarat. His mother was Jain and his father was Vaishnava Hindu.
Shrimad Rajchandra was born on November 9, 1867, in Vavania Bandar, Morbi, Gujarat. His mother was Jain and his father was Vaishnava Hindu.
He started speaking in public at age of 10 and writing articles at 11. He performed Shatavdhan (a difficult memory test of memorizing 100 different things at a time) at Sir Framji Cowasji Institute in Mumbai in 1887. At the age of 32, he contracted an illness from which he never recovered.
He died on April 9, 1901 in Rajkot, Gujarat.
During his life, he served as a spiritual guide and mentor for many people. In addition, throughout his life, he wrote 800 letters charting his spiritual journey.
He is well known as a spiritual guide of Mahatma Gandhi. They were introduced in Mumbai in 1891 and had various conversations through letters while Gandhi was in South Africa.
Gandhi noted his impression of Shrimad Rajchandra in his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, calling Raichandbhai his "guide and helper" and his "refuge… in moments of spiritual crisis".