acharyas/buddhisagar.jpg · 1000×1250He was born Bechardas Patel in 1874 at Vijapur in north Gujarat, in a Hindu farming family. As a boy he came to know Jain monks and began studying with Muni Ravisagar. After his teacher died in 1898, he took diksha in 1901 from Ravisagar's disciple Sukhsagar and was named Muni Buddhisagar, “ocean of wisdom”. He studied Sanskrit, Prakrit and the Agamas, and was made Acharya at Mansa in 1914.
He wrote more than a hundred books and some two thousand poems, mostly in Gujarati, on yoga, meditation, karma and daily Jain life; his Karmayoga is the best known. Rulers of Baroda, Idar and Pethapur invited him to preach. In 1917 he founded the Jain temple at Mahudi, which draws many pilgrims today. He died at Vijapur in 1925, where a memorial shrine stands, and his writings are still read and sung.
