Sri Ramchandraji Maharaj was born on Sunday, the Baisakh Badi Panchami in the Vikram Samvat 1856(saka year 1821) the 30th April 1899 at 07-26 A.M. IST at Shahjahanpur. U.P. India. From early childhood he was showing unique qualities of Mahatmas in his action and behavior. He was balanced. He never suffered from the impulsive craving for food even in early childhood and would partake of food only when offered in love and concern. He was very sensitive by nature. He was placed as a young baby of 2 or 3 months on a sop (a plaited implement used for husking grain under the rays of Sun). After many years when he was practicing meditation, this scene came to his view and he inferred that this must be a childhood impression which was confirmed by his mother who said she has done it several times like that. The sensitivity to impressions and the capacity for exercising his Will were special endowments with which he was born as he would see it later on many incidents.
His mother taught him several precepts to be followed in life like" Be honest" " Do not steal" and similar morals which cast permanent impressions in him. His mother influenced him so much that he requested her to teach him to do Puja that she was performing; But all that she did was to apply sandalwood paste on his forehead and he felt elated. But he learnt soon that this is not the real thing. At the age of 9, he started reading Bhagavad Gita but could not grasp the conditions therein by reading and his craving continued. Later he asked a local priest to prescribe some method of worship and he asked him to do "Rama japa". He tried this only for a week but was not able to observe any change in his condition and his craving continued unabated. Then he tried to do idol worship but found it gross and dragging him further low and therefore he gave it up. This craving continued for many more years.
Sri Ramchandra started studying at the age of 6 under a tutor. But unfortunately he contracted typhoid and had to discontinue studies for an year. The illness made him forget all that he learned till then. Perhaps because he has to learn different things, God wanted to keep his mind a clean state - a state of mind without any impressions - a tabula -rasa. He continued his studies in a school. But that was dotted with failures mainly because he was very poor in mathematics. Once in order to find an excuse for not doing homework in mathematics he put a finger in a wasp-hive and preferred that suffering to the punishment from the teacher for nonperformance. Ofcourse, he regretted for this option later. Ridiculous story from one point of view but this is innocence at its nascent state. His mother's training in moral values was his guiding spirit. He was honest to the core. He found once a rupee (a big amount those days) in the school compound. He dutifully handed over the same to the head master to be returned to the rightful owner. The head master sent a note to all classes regarding the same simultaneously praising the boy for his gesture.
He practiced riding a horse, which was purchased for him by his father and used to go school riding. He was so skillful in this that he used to ride without a syce (groom) also. He was also a good hockey player and was the captain of his class team. But his sensitive nature made him say good bye to this game as his head master did not give materials to play in the leisure time.
Meantime, because of his prayerful mind searching for the Master, he developed enormous sensitivity that he got from the day of his birth. He could sense things like his cloths and that of others by the smell of it and was also capable of knowing the character of the persons by the smell of their perspiration. His craving to know the real nature of God continued always in the background of his mind. By 14 years this matured enough to come to the conclusion that he decided that if he went to any person seeking his Guru he would definitely accept him as such. Such was the development of his will by then. About the same time he developed interest in Philosophy and started his own independent thinking on this subject. Around the 16th year, he once wanted to read John Mills "Utilitarianism" and having obtained the same, left it midway. This was because he was afraid that instead of his own thinking he would get brain washed to the theories of others and later on when he would write books he would be only quoting these authors rather than give his philosophy. Such was the desire of this young man for independent thinking and confidence in him. He always advocated that one should have the courage that he can achieve what he wants. He advocated later that one should remove all doubts and develop confidence in oneself to succeed in all pursuits. He further elaborated this philosophy of life by saying that if any one wanted to poison his will he should create doubt in himself. He insisted in honesty and seriousness in all work to gain good fruit. Later in his philosophy, he stresses this confidence as the beginning of the effort towards realization and proposes this as the point of difference with Sanyasis who state that a Grhasta cannot succeed in realization. During his school days he had a friend who with mesmerism used to treat people suffering from diseases. He started thinking about this process and came to the basic point that it is concentration and movement of energy for some work pregnant with that thought. Some time later a relative of his also claimed himself to be a mesmerist. But he did not want to teach Sri Ramchandra unless he did some personal service as per the old ways generally adopted by gurus.
This was to become one more thought that influenced him so much that he banned this type of personal service to the guru or trainer later in his system of Yoga saying that all knowledge should be made available to the deserving as a matter of service to a brother. Thus we see remarkable positive thinking developing in him right from the school days, which was to guide him in developing his system of training in Raja Yoga. His brain had developed excellent clarity and he with his extraordinary sensitivity arrived at correct conclusions and his will was so strong he could challenge his relative on his next visit and was prepared to any test by him.
This faculty had developed in him so much that every one was aware of his capacity. During that period Sri Idris Ahmed, the Head Master of Govt. High School, Shahjahanpur where he was studying suffered from severe pain of colic. He was totally restless and groaning due to pain and requested Sri Ramchandraji to help him if he can. He caught hold of his thumbs with his hands putting his thumb over his and passed the suggestion that "you are alright now" for a minute. The head master felt relief from pain immediately and he went to sleep. Thereafter the head master referred all the cases of suffering students in the school to him for relief that they were getting. Such was his will even by then. During the school days itself, he developed interest in Philosophy as we have seen earlier. His teachers encouraged him in his pursuit of learning very much. He used to write essays on Philosophy and the subject Dynamics of the Mind was his pet subject. His English teacher used to appreciate his articles on this subject and also used to express his wonder how this school student is able to write about subjects usually taught at the degree level leading to BA etc.