Founder of the Gurukul Parampara :

The Guru-Shishya tradition is the unique feature of Sanatana Dharma, otherwise known as Hinduism. From the Guru the disciple directly receives the knowledge, capacity, virtues, ideologies, values and objectives of life, in a practical, personal and vibrant manner. The vision of Guru becomes the life and mission of Shishya. In such a divine lineage of Guru parampara of Swaminarayan Sampradaya, appeared Sdg. Shatriji Maharaj Shree Dharmajivandasji Swami, a great versatile scholar and man of vision, a tough minded optimist and kind hearted Guru, a staunch advocate of Karma and Bhakti yoga and considered to be the Saint of the century by thousands of people of Gujarat. He founded the first Shree Swaminarayan Gurukul at Rajkot in the year 1948, with the intention of providing a value based education system to everyone, especially to the under-privileged.

Childhood

Born in the year 1901, on the auspicious day of the Rathayatra of Shree Jagannath Bhagawan of Puri, 18th June, to a humble farmer Shree Bhurabhai, in a small village Taravada on the banks of river Shetrunji, Amreli district of Saurashtra and was named as Arjan.  As a child, he was very brilliant and studious. Since his childhood, he had a natural attraction towards saints and sadhus, as he aspired to attend all the spiritual gatherings.  Even at the cost of sleep and food, he used to go and serve these saints at every opportunity he could find.  One such occasion changed his life forever.  He was privileged to receive divine blessings from Saint Shree Balmukundadasji.  This created a spiritual fire in his heart and a calling in his soul that shaped the journey for the rest of his divine life.

From Arjan to Dharmajivan :

Being attracted by the pure and virtuous life led by the saints of Swaminarayan Sampradaya, Arjan started regularly attending Swaminarayan Satsangs.  At the tender age of 16, Arjan was convinced that the pure life of the Swaminarayan Saints was the optimal method of supreme spiritual realization and salvation.  Without hesitation, he took the vows of leading such a life and became a Saint. Arjan now became Sadhu Dharmajivandas.

His vision and mission of life started getting shape. He started studying Sanskrit and other spiritual scriptures as he regularly dwelled deep in to religious and philosophical studies under various renowned scholars.  In a profound effort to enlighten the rural masses, he started traveling to all the near by villages to conduct regular spiritual assemblies.  He even attained the laurels & became the Mahant of Junagadh temple.

However, the routine rituals and monotonous life style was not acceptable to him.  He felt the need to incorporate a pertinent void from the social structure.  A void, if filled, would uplift whole society.  In order for this seemingly impossible task to be accomplished, he felt the scope of education to expand and incorporate spirituality. Schools, colleges, and universities, may multiply in numbers, students may get Degrees, they may flourish in their worldly lives, but the fundamental ingredients to uplift society are lost out.  Unless devoted selfless persons with ideals practiced in life leads, the main purpose of education is vitiated.

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