Acharya Shri Mahapragya(14 June 1920 – 9 May 2010) was the tenth head of the Svetambar Terapanth order of Jainism. Mahapragya was a saint, yogi, spiritual leader, philosopher, author, orator, and poet.
He began his life of religious reflection and development as a Jain monk at the age of ten. Mahapragya played a major role in Anuvrat movement launched by his Guru Acharya Tulsi in 1949, and became the acknowledged leader of the movement in 1995. Acharya Mahapragya formulated the well organized Preksha meditation system in the 1970s, and developed the "Science of Living" education system which is a practical approach for the balanced development of a student and his character building.
He traversed more than 100,000 km on foot covering more than 10,000 villages reaching out to the masses spreading the message of harmony and peace. He walked across the length and breadth of India From Kutch District in Gujarat to Kolkata and from Punjab to Kanyakumari. Mahapragya undertook this travel under the leadership of Acharya Tulsi and later with himself being the leader. During these travels, he addressed thousands of public meetings. Mahapragya, an apostle of nonviolence, launched the Ahimsa Yatra movement in 2001 which continued until 2009 to promote non-violence and harmony.
Mahapragya was born to Tola Ram Choraria and Baluji in the small village of Tamkor in Rajasthan. It was a Jain Shwetambar Terapanthi Oswal family. He was called Nathmal by his family. He lost his father when he was just two and half months old. It was an extended family and he gained support from all the family members. Nathmal's mother was very affectionate for the child and took care with his upbringing. There was no formal school in Tamkor village in those days and he did not receive a formal education. He nonetheless had lessons on letters and mathematics tables from local teacher(s). Mahapragya's mother was religious lady who devoted her spare time to spiritual matters. She also used to recite religious songs which made an imprint on the young child. Her spirituality inspired him. Mahapragya received lessons on philosophy from Jain monks who visited the village. Eventually he conveyed to his mother his wish to be initiated into monkhood. On 29 January 1931, he became a monk at the age of ten. Acharya Kalugani, eighth Acharya of Jain Swetambar Terapanth initiated him to monkhood in the town of Sardarsahar (Rajasthan). With this, Nathmal became Muni Nathmal. Acharya Kalugani arranged for Muni Nathmal's studies under Muni Tulsi's classes, who later became the Ninth Acharya. Nathmal started getting lessons in the monastery on various subjects of Jain philosophy.
With Muni Tulsi, the child's intellectual development accelerated and he memorised thousands of sermons and verses in Hindi, Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Rajasthani. His education at the monastery included history, philosophy, logic, and grammar. He made an in-depth study of Jain scriptures, became a scholar of Jain Agamas, and a critic of Indian and western philosophy. By the age of 22, he was competent in Hindi, Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Rajasthani languages and literature. In Sanskrit, he was also an expert impromptu or extempore poet and demonstrated this skill in many gatherings of intellectuals. He also studied physics, biology, ayurved, politics, economics, and sociology.
Acharya Shri Tulsi nominated Muni Nathmal as the Secretary (Nikaya Sachiv) of Terapanth in 1965 at Hissar Harayana after being Group leader (Agraganya) for almost 21 years.
While in his late twenties, Mahapragya started to realize the wonders of meditation. He was open to experiment with spiritual techniques. He discussed his discoveries with Acharya Tulsi and thereafter Mahapragya started dedicating more time to meditation practices. He exercised deep practice of meditation and experimented with various techniques. He made a deep research of Jain Agamas, ancient scriptures, Yoga science, Biology, Modern Physics, Naturopathy, and Ayurveda, etc. After a deep practice for over 20 years, he formulated the Preksha meditation system in 1975. He formulated the meditation system in a very well organized and scientific way. The basic four wings of the meditation system can be summarized as – Meditation, Yogasana and Pranaayam, Mantra, and therapy.
Before presenting Preksha meditation in formal training camps, Mahapragya made a special practice of meditation and spiritual exertion for a period of nine months which started on 3 March 1977. The First formal Preksha meditation camp was organized later in 1977.
Since that time Acharya Mahapragya had conducted hundreds of camps for training in Preksha meditation. Many Preksha Meditation centers are operative across the globe. Research, detail training, and studies on Preksha Meditation is an important activity at Jain Vishva Bharati University.
Impressed by Muni Nathmal (later Mahapragya), Acharya Tulsi honored him with the qualitative epithet of Mahapragya (highly knowledged) on 12 November 1978.
On 4 February 1979, his appellation 'Mahapragya' was converted into his new name by Acharya Tulsi and he was also made 'Yuvacharya', successor designate to the present Acharya, the second highest position after the Acharya himself. With this elevation, he was now referred as Yuvacharya Mahapragya. As a Yuvacharya , Mahapragya became a close associate of Acharya Tulsi in major decisions and activities related to the sect.
In a public meeting on 18 February 1994, Acharya Tulsi declared that Mahapragya would now have the title of 'Acharya' also and that the former was renouncing this position forthwith. Subsequently, on 5 February 1995, Mahapragya was formally consecrated as the 10th Acharya – the supreme head – of the Terapanth religious order in a public meeting in Delhi. Having been elevated within Terapanth, Mahapragya received many responsibilities. Further intensification of the movements of Anuvrat, Preksha dhyan, and Jeevan Vigyan now became his primary concern. A Vikash Parishad – development council – has been constituted by Mahapragya to give further fillip to all these movements and underline their importance.
The world's problems touched Acharya Mahapragya deeply. In response, he came up with the solution of Ahimsa Yatra, a journey on foot to advance the cause of non-violence, was launched by Mahapragya 5 December 2001 at Sujangarh in Rajasthan. With Ahimsa Yatra, Acharyaji's mission is to train and spread nonviolence and its broad perspective to people. It is an endeavor to awaken a new faith in the infinite power of nonviolence. It aims at bringing the problems of all forms of violence into sharp focus. Its mission is to provide training for transforming the negative thoughts/emotions into positive direction. The spiritual aspect of non-violence training is to ignite the consciousness of non-violence and to cultivate the values of non-violence. And its practical aspect is the employment training for livelihood.
Having eschewed violence and pledged to refrain from killing innocent creatures; political leaders, social workers, and spiritual leaders came to him for advice. He took his Yatra from Rajasthan to Gujarat, Maharashtra, Daman, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, some parts of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Chandigarh. He passed through 87 districts of India, and covered more than 2400 villages, towns and cities, where he held meetings with many spiritual and political leaders and appealed for communal harmony. Approximately 40,000 volunteers were assigned to various responsibilities in their local areas.
This Yatra allowed him to come into direct contact with farmers and common and poor people of the villages which he visited. He stopped at all the small villages on his route and held open mass meetings. Through this public speaking, Acharyaji created awareness on the broad perspectives of nonviolence, unemployment eradication, leading a life free from drug addiction, bad habits, communal harmony, healthy living, and harmonious social and personal lives. Side by side volunteers spread out in different directions in order to establish personal contact with families afflicted by drug addictions, unemployment, and stress. These volunteers were then to stay behind in order to help solve the afflicted's problems. Verily the villages and towns trekked by the Acharya become centres of training in ahimsa.
The Yatra concluded 4 January 2009 at Sujangarh, the same place where it had been begun.
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