acharyas/mahapragya.jpg · 1000×1250Born Nathmal in 1920 at Tamkor in Rajasthan, he took diksha in 1931, aged ten, from Acharya Kalugani, the eighth Terapanth acharya. He grew up in the sangh beside Acharya Tulsi, who became his teacher and lifelong companion in study. For decades he worked with Tulsi on critical editions of the Agamas. Tulsi gave him the title Mahapragya, named him Yuvacharya in 1979, and in 1995 he became the tenth acharya of the Terapanth.
Drawing on Jain texts and his own long practice, he shaped Preksha Meditation in the 1970s, a method of perceiving breath, body and mind that is now taught widely. He wrote more than 300 books in Hindi and Sanskrit. From 2001 to 2009 he led an Ahimsa Yatra on foot through thousands of villages, and he wrote a book on family values with President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam. He died at Sardarshahar in 2010.
