Gnani Purush Dadashri

An out of this world, extraordinary baby boy was born to Zaverba wife of Shri Muljibhai Patel of Bhadran in Kheda district in the state of Gujarat, in India on November 8th 1908 in town of Tarsali in the house of his mother’s parents. He was named Ambalal.

His childhood incidents tell us about the greatness of his mother and himself which was evident from the beginning. His mother instilled the values of highest moral and non-violence from very young age.

He got married at the age of 16 to Hiraba. They had a son and a daughter. Both of them died soon. Dadashri and Hiraba never had any conflict in their sixty years of married life. His entire life was spent in helping others. He was in the construction business. He never cut corners and worked without any greed or deceit. Also he had compassion for everyone.

Gnan Events and its description

On a June evening in 1958 at around six o'clock, Ambalal Muljibhai Patel, a family man, contractor by profession, was sitting on a bench of a busy platform # 3 at Surat train station. Surat is a city in south Gujarat. What happened within the next forty-eight minutes was phenomenal. Spontaneous Self-realization occurred within Ambalal M. Patel. During this, his ego melted totally and completely. From that time, onwards he became completely detached from all thoughts, speech and acts of Ambalal and he became a living instrument of The Lord for salvation of the world. He called this Lord, Dada Bhagwan. (It is to be remembered here, that this does not happen to anyone. It was the result of the pursuit for self knowledge of countless previous births.)

Who is Dada Bhagwan?

‘Dada Bhagwan’ is the lord within every living creature whether visible or invisible to our naked eyes. “Only difference between the ‘Dada Bhagwan’ within you all & the one within ME is that between an unlit candle & a lit one respectively”, he used to say. Only a lit candle can light another candle. Dada Bhagwan’ is the God within all of us, be it parents, teachers, siblings, friends, pets, insects, trees & so on. So we have to be careful not to hurt them or else unknowingly we hurt the God within them, which is the true cause of all the sufferings in our life.

Spiritual path of Akram Vignan

His words became the foundation for the new direct step less path (path where you don’t have to do hard penance, renunciation etc like going in elevator rather than climbing steps) to realization called Akram Vignan. Through his divine original scientific experiment, The Gnan Vidhi, he imparted this knowledge to others within two hours. Thousands have received his grace through this process and thousands continue to do so even now. He was lovingly called ‘Dadashri’.

Greatly Revered Dadashri used to go from town to town and country to country to give satsang and impart the knowledge of the Self as well as knowledge of living happily with everyone everyday to all who came to see him. The characteristics of a Gnani are in his divinity, serenity, humbleness, nobility, love for all, which inspire us to become one like them. The only darshan (glimpse) of a Gnani eliminate the impurities within us and fill our hearts with love & respect for all.

Pujya Dadashri, after him, gifted this world with two Gnanis to keep the auspicious task of realizing the Self continued by Pujya Niruma and Pujya Deepakbhai (current spiritual leader).