Yuvacharya Mahaprajna
Not only did his marches grow in size but he also grew into a colossus of a man. He visits small villages. There too crowds swell beyond our expectation. Many a time I have observed closely how people throng to have his glimpse. They are drawn towards him, as it were, by a magnetic pull. They leave him with great difficulty even when it is time for him to have his meal. Very often Acharyashree says, 'I have now become a part of the masses.' Acharyashree did not want religion or a monk to be bound by any restrictions. He became generous and the outlook of the people around him also underwent a change. Now all sections of society, irrespective of their caste, class, religion and party, look on him as their own saint. In his eyes there is nobody who is not his own. Once when Acharyashree was speaking at a huge assembly, a man stood up and asked, "Are you a Hindu or a Muslim?" Acharyashree replied, "Brother, I am not a Hindu because I do not have a choti (a lock of hair) on my head, nor am I a muslim since I was not born in a Muslim family." He asked him again, "What are you, then?" Acharyashree replied, "I am a human being by birth. I am also a Jain because I am trying to conquer myself." At an assembly of scholars in Poona, a Sanskrit scholar asked him whether he considered the Jains Hindus. Acharyashree replied that the Jains could be considered Hindus in case the word 'Hindu' meant someone belonging to India. If it meant someone following the Vedic religion, the Jains were not Hindus.
In Acharyashree's view a man should only be a man (human being) before he becomes a Jain or a Vedic follower or a Muslim or a Buddhist.
