Dada Bhagawan lived his life like any householder, running a successful business but with total detachment.
Profile
Dada Bhagawan was born as Ambalal Muljibhai Patel on 7th November 1908 in Tarsali, Gujarat. His parents were Mulijibhai and Jhaverba, who followed the Vaishnava tradition. His mother was a huge influence on him instilling the spiritual values. As a child he was good in his studies, he saw the god principle in his subjects especially in Math. During his free time he used to serve in an ashram nearby and one of the sages there said, “Son, God will take you to ultimate liberation (moksha)!”. He immediate retort was “If God gives me liberation, then He can also take it back! Liberation means there is no one above or below you.” All this came out of him when he was just thirteen. He had an independent mind and did not want to serve below anyone and did not consider anyone above him as well. He married Hiraba in 1924 and the children born to them died as infants. Hiraba also went blind in one eye and many asked him to remarry which he vehemently refused. He failed his matriculation on purpose because his father and brother wanted him to become a collector. Since this meant working under someone he failed in the exam; another incident to show his love for complete freedom. He became a contractor and a very efficient and famous one at that. He did not deviate from his values while running his business. His partner understood Ambalal so well that when he went away for his spiritual tours, the partner took care of the business completely. One evening in June 1958, sitting on a seat in a railway platform he is said to have realised, getting the answers to all the questions he had in mind. Though this enlightenment was spontaneous, it was the result of years of living a life of celibate constantly seeking it. He was greatly influenced by the writings of ShrimadRajchandra, a Jain monk. Almost immediately people around him understood the changes and began calling him Dada Bhagavan. After serving the society for a long time he left the mortal body on 2nd January 1988.
Philosophy Propounded
For Dada Bhagavan realisation was everything and he wanted everyone to attain it. He could initiate people into in and called it Gnanvidhi.
Work Done to Spread the Philosophy
Dada Bhagavanfounded the AkramVignana Movement which had some principles from Jainism. Gnanbhakthi which was devotional surrender was the main philosophy of this movement. The surrender was to Simandhar Swami whose interlocutor was Dada Bhagawan. Dada Bhagawan gave lectures and today this movement has spread all over the world. Lot of philanthropic activities are being done by people in this movement. Dada Bhagawan lived a life to prove a householder could realise without complete renunciation and living amongst people, doing all that a normal householder would do.
