Introduction to The 'Gnani Purush'
On a June evening in 1958 at around six o’clock, Ambalal
Muljibhai Patel, a family man, a contractor by profession, was
sitting on a bench on the busy platform number 3 of 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 Ambalal’s thoughts, speech and acts. He became the
Lord’s living instrument for the salvation of mankind, through the
path of knowledge. He called this Lord, Dada Bhagwan. To
everyone he met, he would say, “This Lord, Dada Bhagwan is
fully manifest within me. He also resides within all living beings.
The difference is that within me He is completely expressed and
in you, he is 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
questions were answered during this event. Thus nature offered
absolute vision to the world through the medium of Shree
Ambalal Muljibhai Patel.
Ambalal was born in Tarsali, a suburb of the city of
Baroda and raised in Bhadran, Gujarat. His wife’s name was
Hiraba. Although he was a contractor by profession, his life at
home and his interaction with everyone around him was exemplary
even prior to his Self-realization. After becoming Self-realized
and attaining the state of a Gnani, (The Awakened One), his
body became a ‘public charitable trust.’
Throughout his whole 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