Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshji, founder of Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur (SRMD), turned 60 on September 26, a milestone which was marked by ‘Aho Gurudev’, a two-day celebration at Mumbai’s Jio World Convention Centre attended by thousands of devotees from 24 countries.
And that’s what I saw today. Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy, Swami Swaroopanandaji of Chinmaya Mission and Brahma Kumari Sister Shivani addressed the gathering. Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshji delivered an inaugural discourse on ‘Choosing Consciously’. Befitting to the occasion, Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshji also gave a discourse on ‘Renouncing Courageously’. N Chandrashekharan noted the impact Gurudevshri is having on the youth and the strong values they were being imparted. Ashok P. Hinuja shared the inner peace and happiness that he experienced on meeting Gurudevshri.
The first evening, September 25, saw the Mission unveil 60 projects for his 60th year, 30 in seva and 30 in spiritual growth, including a pledge to reach 60 million lives through medical camps, anaemia mitigation and vision care projects. On the morning of his birthday, 11 young professionals, including a retina surgeon, four architects and an IBM consultant, took Atmarpit Diksha, a vow of lifelong celibacy, sadhana and sevaservice, in the presence of Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji Maharaj, Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati, Bhikkhu Sanghasena and Hema Malini. The closing evening brought a musical on his life performed by around 600 devotees, the release of his visual biography ‘Beyond’ by Chairman of Tata Sons N Chandrasekaran, Ranbir Kapoor, and blessings from Morari Bapu and Anandmurti Gurumaa, before Gurudevshri’s culminating discourse on ‘Serving Compassionately’. The 11 walked onto the stage dressed in their finest and walked off in white. Aged between 25 and 36, they include four architects, a retina surgeon, a paediatric dentist, a software developer, a visual artist and an IBM consultant from Dallas. Industrialist Motilal Oswal called the 60 projects “a beautiful reflection of a life dedicated to serving humanity.
Narayana Murthy said, “The true measure of any spiritual tradition lies not in teachings alone, but in the compassion it inspires in action. Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh wrote that Gurudevshri’s life is “devoted to wisdom, devotion and selfless service,” and Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel wished him good health and a long life.
In his culminating address, he compared the modern mind to a phone with too many apps open, running yesterday, tomorrow, career, comparison, fear and regret, and said spirituality is “learning how to close the unnecessary apps of your mind. In the opening discourse on his birthday, Gurudevshri noted how the only way to eradicate darkness is to work towards getting light. In the same way, sanyas is like lighting a lamp in one’s life; walking on the path of eradicating the darkness of negativities. Inner practice and service are two halves of one life: “Sadhana generates the energy and seva distributes it. Only seva, you get exhausted, and only sadhana makes you disconnected. The beauty is in holding both. He closed with a call to those present: “Let us not merely live long, let’s live deep. Let us not accumulate more; let’s learn to circulate more.
“Every thought that enters your mind does not deserve citizenship,” he said. “Usually, the bigger the saint, the bigger the cake,” Bhikkhu Sanghasena said. “Today I don’t see any cake, but I see so many spiritually uplifting programmes.”
Who Is Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshji
Chairman of Tata Sons N Chandrasekaran, Ranbir Kapoor and other dignitaries released ‘Beyond’, a visual biography of Gurudevshri’s life and work, the same evening. The Mission today works across six continents, with a strong following among young people through its 5S programme of Satsang, Sadhana, Seva, Sanskruti and Sports. “We’re just surrendering to a living, loving, enlightened Master who knows us better than we know ourselves. Across three discourses, Gurudevshri moved from purpose to renunciation to service. The birthday morning opened with a Symphony of Global Wishes, as devotees and representatives from the Mission’s centres worldwide offered greetings. Senior Sanyasi Atmarpit Nemiji, who has served alongside Gurudevshri for years, paid a personal tribute. “He can say no, and you can still feel secure in His shelter. “Life is not only to have more, life is to be more. Guru is the one who is going to actually transform you. There were so many young people here. It has touched them, it has made them have empathy towards the world. He also expressed his keen interest to visit the Ashram in Dharampur. Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, Subhash Ghai and Sajid Nadiadwala offered birthday wishes. He earned an M.A. in Philosophy with a gold medal and a PhD from the University of Mumbai for his research on Shri Atmasiddhi Shastra, the work of Shrimad Rajchandraji, regarded as Mahatma Gandhi’s spiritual guide.
With this year’s 11, the Mission now has 131 Atmarpits, who run much of its work, including its Dharampur ashram. The closing evening’s cultural tribute centred on a musical on Gurudevshri’s life, scripted and performed entirely by around 600 devotees and staged with state-of-the-art LED projections and animatronics, turning the convention hall into an immersive visual experience. The Mission’s hospital network, which began with 40 beds, has grown to 2,000 beds, including a 700-bed hospital at Surendranagar, and it announced a cancer hospital in Dharampur to serve over 11 lakh tribal residents with Da Vinci robotic surgery; along with a kidney & eye hospital. Its anaemia project has conducted over 10 million screenings across 19 states, and its vision care project has screened over 10.4 million people and provided 1.2 million spectacles. Together with six mega medical camps, from Leh to Darbhanga, the Mission has pledged to reach 60 million lives in his 60th year, one in every 26 Indians, running 60 medical camps a day with over 100 partners. Other projects include a 44-acre animal care campus with India’s first private-sector animal blood bank, an AI-powered career platform called DISHA, Mumbai’s largest government ITI, and 10 new rural centres for women. Speaking afterwards, he added, “Even if you go to a school, you can’t get 30 kids to listen to one teacher and follow. Hema Malini, who attended the birthday morning, said, “Today we celebrate not merely 60 years of a life, but 60 years of light. Born in Mumbai on September 26, 1966, Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshji was drawn to meditation from early childhood. He founded Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur in 1994 on the principle of realising one’s true self and serving others selflessly, and established its international headquarters at Dharampur in South Gujarat in 2001.
“We aren’t giving anything up today,” said Nimit Batavia, an architect and former footballer, speaking for the group. Drishti Doshi, a software developer, described the moment as “switching gears to move faster on the path” they were already on. On the opening evening, he said birthdays should not make people ask how much they have lived, “but what has lived through you,” and that God will not ask how high a person rose, “but how many you lifted. “I’ve heard Bapa speak about love, but more importantly I’ve seen Him love,” he said. Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji Maharaj, President of Parmarth Niketan, Rishikesh, said he had never seen renunciation celebrated this way. “Sanyas becomes celebration,” he told the new Atmarpits. Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati, who left Los Angeles for Rishikesh 30 years ago, described sanyas as “not a walking away from, it is a leaping towards,” and praised Gurudevshri for reminding a generation lost in endless scrolling to look at the soul between the scrolls. Ram Kathakar Morari Bapu said he had seen that Gurudevshri’s inner self is always immersed in sadhana and his outer self in seva, warning that service without sadhana breeds ego. Pujya Anandmurti Gurumaa told devotees, “Guru is not an entertainer. On the opening evening, Swami Swaroopananda said, “They are great who serve, but those who inspire many more to serve are certainly divine,” while Sister Shivani urged devotees to ask themselves each night: “Who became better because of me? Ranbir Kapoor, who met Gurudevshri for the first time, said on stage, “I know you are often called a youth magnet. Kapoor, who said becoming a father drew him closer to spirituality, described sensing “some aura which is very hard to define” while sitting beside Gurudevshri.
