Dada Bhagwan (7 November 1908 – 2 January 1988), also known as Dadashri, born Ambalal Muljibhai Patel, was an Indian spiritual leader from Gujarat who founded the Akram Vignan Movement.

A. M. Patel credited his mother for instilling an early appreciation of the values of nonviolence, empathy, selfless generosity, and spiritual penance within him.

[2][3][4] He claimed to have attained self-realisation in June 1958 at Surat railway station while sitting on a bench at platform number 3.

Unlike the step-by-step purification according to Jain principles, Akram Vignan promises instant salvation through the grace of Simandhar Swami, for whom Dada Bhagwan serves as a medium.

His followers believe that they will be reborn in two lives in Mahavideha, a mythical land described in Jain cosmology from where they can achieve Moksha (liberation) as they are in connection with Gnani (knower).

Flügel regards the movement to be a form of Jain-Vaishnava syncretism, a development analogous to the Mahayana in Buddhism.

Kanubhai K. Patel was the second person, who was also his business partner, who received the "instant knowledge" in 1963 from Dada Bhagwan.

The movement expanded in the 1960s and 1970s to southern Gujarat and Maharashtra and in Gujarati diaspora in East Africa, North America and UK.

[2][3][5] As part of advocating Ahimsa (non-violence), a strict lacto-vegetarian diet based on Sattvic principles was important to Bhagwan.

[1] He argued for cow protection and against the consumption of meat, eggs and root vegetables on ethical and spiritual grounds.

"[7] Bhagwan opposed the consumption of eggs but stated that dairy products can be consumed freely as long as the cows are well nourished and their calves are not starved.

[9] Dada Bhagwan was portrayed by Gulshan Grover in a 2012 independent film Desperate Endeavors directed by French-Algerian director Salim Khassa.