Gallery of Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshji (Rakesh Jhaveri)
Osmania University. Photo: Nbsubbaiah at English Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:OsmaniaUnivArtsCollege.JPG)
Gallery of Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshji (Rakesh Jhaveri)
University of Mumbai. Photo: Pinakpani, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mumbai_University_Buildings_15.jpg)
Other photo of Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshji (Rakesh Jhaveri)
Osmania University. Photo: Nbsubbaiah at English Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:OsmaniaUnivArtsCollege.JPG)
Other photo of Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshji (Rakesh Jhaveri)
University of Mumbai. Photo: Pinakpani, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mumbai_University_Buildings_15.jpg)
Rakesh Jhaveri, widely known as Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshji, is an Indian Jain spiritual leader, scholar, author, and orator. He founded Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur and earned a doctorate from the University of Mumbai for research on Shrimad Rajchandra’s Atmasiddhi Shastra.
Background
Rakesh Jhaveri was born on September 26, 1966, in Mumbai, Maharashtra, to Dilip and Rekha Jhaveri, a Jain family associated with the Shvetambara Murtipujak tradition. His early life developed in Mumbai, one of India's major commercial and cultural centres.
He became interested in Jain spirituality and the teachings of Shrimad Rajchandra at an early age. After completing the ICSE examination in 1983, he decided to devote his life to spiritual activity. Between 1985 and 1990, he studied religious texts, practised yoga, learned Indian classical music and observed extended periods of silence while travelling extensively.
Education
Jhaveri began his formal schooling at Activity High School in Mumbai in 1972 and completed the ICSE examination in 1983. The school formed part of Mumbai's English-medium educational environment during a period when secondary education was increasingly linked to university and professional study.
He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Osmania University in Hyderabad in 1988. Founded in 1918, Osmania University is a major public university established during the late princely-state period and known for its role in higher education in the Deccan. Jhaveri later obtained a Master of Arts degree in Philosophy from the University of Mumbai in 1991, reportedly receiving a gold medal.
He completed a PhD at the University of Mumbai in 1998. His doctoral research examined Atmasiddhi Shastra, the 142-verse spiritual work composed by Shrimad Rajchandra. The University of Mumbai, established in 1857, is one of India's oldest modern universities and has long supported scholarship in the humanities and social sciences.
Jhaveri began giving spiritual talks at a young age and became known as Gurudev among followers. During the 1980s he combined spiritual study, meditation, periods of silence, travel, and formal university education. His later public teaching has focused on Jain principles, the writings of Shrimad Rajchandra, self-realisation, and the practical application of spiritual discipline.
In 1994, he inspired the establishment of Shrimad Rajchandra Adhyatmik Satsang Sadhana Kendra, an organisation devoted to spiritual study and practice. The initiative later developed into Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur, an international spiritual movement centred on satsang, sadhana, and seva.
Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram was established at Dharampur in South Gujarat in 2001. Located on Mohangadh Hill, the ashram serves as the mission's international headquarters and a centre for discourses, meditation retreats, scriptural study, and community activities. In 2002, Jhaveri began initiating selected followers known as Atmarpits, who undertake a disciplined life involving renunciation, celibacy, and service.
Through Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur and its social-service initiative Shrimad Rajchandra Love and Care, Jhaveri has supported programmes in education, health care, animal welfare, rural development, and humanitarian service. The mission conducts activities through centres in India and abroad.
Achievements
Founded Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur, an international spiritual organisation devoted to Jain teachings, meditation, self-realisation, and selfless service.
Established Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram at Dharampur in 2001 as a centre for spiritual retreats, scriptural study, meditation, and community activities.
Completed doctoral research at the University of Mumbai on Shrimad Rajchandra's Atmasiddhi Shastra, a central work of Jain spiritual literature.
Developed Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur's programme of social service through education, health care, animal welfare, rural development, and humanitarian initiatives.
(A spiritual guide explaining the inward journey, the limi...)
Religion
Rakesh Jhaveri is a Jain spiritual leader and a devotee of Shrimad Rajchandra, whose teachings draw on the path of Bhagwan Mahavir. His public work emphasizes self-realisation, meditation, satsang, disciplined spiritual practice, and selfless service.
Jainism is an ancient Indian religious tradition associated with nonviolence, self-restraint, karma, and liberation of the soul. Jhaveri's teachings present these principles through accessible discourses, meditation retreats, study of Jain scriptures, and service initiatives conducted through Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur.
Views
Jhaveri's philosophy centres on the inward search for self-realisation. His teachings hold that lasting happiness cannot be secured through the pursuit of wealth, power, achievement, or external relationships alone, and that spiritual understanding requires turning inward through satsang, meditation, introspection, and disciplined conduct.
His interpretation of Jain spirituality links knowledge with lived practice. The path he presents joins scriptural study, the guidance of a realised teacher, renunciation of delusion, compassion, nonviolence, and selfless service. His writings and discourses repeatedly treat human birth as an opportunity for liberation and ethical transformation.
Personality
Jhaveri's public teaching is characterised by a disciplined, contemplative, and service-oriented presentation of Jain spirituality. His work combines scriptural explanation with meditation, introspection, and practical guidance for daily life.
Quotes from others about the person
In 2017, a statement entered in the Congressional Record of the United States described Rakesh Jhaveri as a spiritual leader of Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur and praised his emphasis on Jain values, self-control, devotion, humility, service, peace, and spiritual elevation.
Interests
Yoga, meditation, Jain scriptures, spiritual discourse, and the study of philosophy.
Writers
Shrimad Rajchandra
Music & Bands
Indian classical music is among Jhaveri's documented interests; he studied it during his period of spiritual preparation in the 1980s.
Connections
Jhaveri acknowledged Shrimad Rajchandra as his spiritual guru and has devoted his teaching career to interpreting Rajchandra's writings and advancing his spiritual path. His public work is closely connected with Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur, the organisation he founded and guides.
Father:
Dilip Jhaveri
He was the father of Rakesh Jhaveri and belonged to a Jain family in Mumbai.
Mother:
Rekha Jhaveri
She was the mother of Rakesh Jhaveri and belonged to a Jain family in Mumbai.
Honoring His Holiness Gurudev Rakeshbhai Jhaveri
A Congressional Record statement documenting Jhaveri's role as spiritual leader of Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur and describing the mission's Jain spiritual emphasis.
