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Introduction to The Gnani
One June evening, in 1958 at around six o’clock, Ambalal
Muljibhai Patel, a family man, and a contractor by profession,
was sitting on a bench on the busy platform number three at
Surat’s train station. Surat is a city in south Gujarat, a western
state in India. What happened within the next forty-eight minutes
was phenomenal. Spontaneous Self-Realization occurred within
Ambalal M. Patel. During this event, his ego completely melted
and from that moment onwards, he became completely detached
from all of Ambalal’s thoughts, speech, and actions. He became
the Lord’s living instrument for the salvation of humankind,
through the path of knowledge. He called this Lord, ‘Dada
Bhagwan.’ To everyone he met, he would say, “This Lord,
Dada Bhagwan is fully manifested within me. He also resides
within all living beings. The difference is that within me He is
completely expressed and in you, he has yet to manifest.”
Who are we? What is God? Who runs this world? What
is karma? What is liberation? Etc. All the world’s spiritual
que stions were answered during this event. Thus, nature offered
absolute vision to the world through the medium of Shree Ambalal
Muljibhai Patel.
Ambalal Patel was born in Tarasali, a suburb of Baroda
and was later raised in Bhadran, Gujarat. His wife’s name was
Hiraba. Although he was a contractor by profession, his life at
home and his interactions with everyone around him were
exemplary, even prior to his Self-Realization. After becoming
Self-Realized and attaining the state of a Gnani, (The Awakened
One, Jnani in Hindi), his body became a ‘public charitable trust.’
Throughout his entire life, he lived by the principle that
there should not be any commerce in religion, and in all
commerce, there must be religion. He also never took money
from anyone for his own use. He used the profits from his business
to take his devotees for pilgrimages to various parts of India.
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