Mumbai (PTI): 'Charity Destroys, Work Builds' was the mantra of the last of India's great social activists, Baba Amte, revered as a saint in his lifetime and as a god by the thousands of lepers he cared for.

Innumerable awards, including Padma Vibhushan and the Magsaysay Award came the way of 94-year old Murlidhar Devidas alias Baba Amte, who once allowed bacilli from a leprosy patient to be injected into him for further tests, justifying the title 'abhaysadhak' given to him by Mahatma Gandhi.

Born on December 26, 1914 in Wardha district of Maharashtra, Amte trained as a lawyer and participated in the freedom struggle against the British empire. He spent time at Mahatma Gandhi's ashram in Sevagram and was also influenced by Vinoba Bhave, Rabindranath Tagore, and Sane Guruji.

Amte's life was a story of one man's colourful odyssey to conquer his own fears and expand the notion of justice and peace through innovative experiments. His most famous experiment was the Anandwan, literally meaning, the Forest of Joy, where he breathed his last today after battling cancer.

Amte's admirers included the Dalai Lama who described his work as 'practical compassion, real transformation and the proper way to develop India.'

Baba Amte will also be remembered for his many peace and justice marches across India, his solidarity with the aborigine tribes, and his opposition to big dams like the Sardar Sarovar project on Narmada river.

Amte was awarded the U N Human Rights Prize, the Magsaysay award, the Templeton Prize, the Gandhi Peace Prize, and several other humanitarian and environmental prizes.