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.
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. “Today I don’t see any cake, but I see so many spiritually uplifting programmes. “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. 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.
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.
“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. “Every thought that enters your mind does not deserve citizenship,” he said. “Usually, the bigger the saint, the bigger the cake,” Bhikkhu Sanghasena said.
And that’s what I saw today. “Life is not only to have more, life is to be more. 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.
Industrialist Motilal Oswal called the 60 projects “a beautiful reflection of a life dedicated to serving humanity.
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. 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.
