Rakesh Jhaveri

Rakesh Jhaveri, also known as Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshbhai and Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshji, (born 26 September 1966) is a spiritual leader, mystic, scholar of Jainism, author and orator from India. Spiritually inclined from a young age, he is a follower of Shrimad Rajchandra, a Jain spiritual teacher. He completed doctoral studies on Shrimad's work '' Atmasiddhi''. He founded Shrimad Rajchandra Mission, Dharampur which supports spiritual and social activities.

Early life

Rakesh Jhaveri was born in Mumbai, India on 26 September 1966 to Dilip and Rekha Jhaveri, who followed the Shwetambara Murtipujaka tradition of Jainism. In 1968, Sahaj Anandji, a monk from Rajasthan who had established Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram at Hampi, was at Palitana. Rakesh's parents were influenced by Sahaj Anandji who died in 1970 and was succeeded by Mataji.

In 1972, Rakesh began his academic studies at Activity High School in Mumbai. From an early age, he was spiritually inclined. From the age of four he began speaking on Jain philosophy. He first encountered Shrimad Rajchandra when a copy of fell and he saw the photograph of Shrimad Rajchandra. He recounted that he went into deep meditation for 72 hours after this incident, which led to (recounting of previous lives).

In 1978, Rakesh visited Hampi and stayed for eighteen months. A ''satsang-mandal'' (devotional group) was formed by 1978 and some followers had already started to call him guru by 1980. During his visit to his aunt in Jaipur, he decided to devote rest of his life to spiritual activities. In 1983, he visited Hampi again and stayed there for two years. There he was nominated as Mataji's successor. In 1985, he returned to Mumbai upon his parents' request and started studying religious texts, practicing yoga and learning Indian classical music. He observed silence for twelve hours a day and traveled extensively between 1985 and 1990. During this period, the number of followers around him continued to grow. During his holidays in Nepal, he decided to pursue the college studies.

He completed B. A. from Osmania University, Hyderabad, in 1988. In 1989, he visited Antwerp for his father's treatment where his discourses were attended by increasing number of followers. He completed M. A. in Philosophy in 1991 from the University of Mumbai. He started his doctoral studies on '' Atmasiddhi'', a spiritual work composed by Shrimad Rajchandra, in January 1994 under Ramanlal Shah. He was awarded PhD on 2 December 1998 by the University of Mumbai. He had vowed not to give a public discourse until his PhD was completed. He gave his first public discourse in Rajkot on 13 April 2001.

Spiritual works

Rakesh Jhaveri established Shrimad Rajchandra Adhyatmik Satsang Sadhana Kendra in 1994 to organise his followers which was later succeeded by the Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur. On 13 May 1999, the construction of an ashram