Life of the master
The inspiration of BAPS, Swaminarayan was born as Ghanshyam Pande into a brahmin family in the village Chapaiya, in modern day UP, in 1781.
The boy was spiritually inclined from his childhood. When he was a toddler, his father decided to test Ghanshyam’s instincts. He placed the child in front of a plate with a gold coin, a small dagger, and the Bhagavad Gita, each of these objects symbolizing a particular trade or occupation. Ghanshyam immediately reached for the Gita, symbolizing his spiritual inclination.
He started learning Sanskrit from the age of 5, and by the age of 7, he had mastered all the scriptures.
At the age of 11, after his parents died, he left his home, wandering throughout India and parts of Nepal, in search of ashrams having correct understanding of Vedanta, Sankhya, Yoga and Pancharatra. He took up the name Nilkanth Varni on the journey.
He mastered Ashtanga yoga from a master Gopal Yogi in 9 months.
After the pilgrimage and learning experience, he reached Loj, a city in Junagadh district of Gujarat, concluding a 7 year journey in British India.
At Loj he met Ramanand Swami, a Vaishnavite saint of Uddhav Sampraday, and decided to be his disciple.
Eventually Ramanand initiated him to sanyasa and Nilakanth Varni was named as Sahajanand Swami.
Sahajanand swami was known as Swaminarayan after he gave the Swaminarayan mantra to his followers in a discourse, on 31st December 1801, 14 days after the death of his guru.
Henceforth Uddhav Sampraday was called as Swaminarayan Sampraday and so began the Swaminarayan movement from 1802. He once initiated 500 ascetics as Paramahamsas in a single night.
When he had came to Gujarat, the law and order situation was terrible. Neither the local kings nor the British government was able to control the killings, robberies, rapes. The people had forgotten their dharma and were involved in the consumption of meat, alcohol, orgies, violence and practicing tamasic tantras.
His divine presence slowly changed the area. Notorious criminals changed into people with high moral values. The British were highly impressed with his work and even donated land for constructing a temple (in 1822).
He was against the social ills like sati pratha, he was for the education of women, he was against the caste system, and some of his paramahamsas were from lower strata of the society.
He ordered the construction of several temples and built 6 of them by himself, the first one built in Ahmedabad in 1822 on British donated land.
He left his body in 1830, aged 49 years. Prior to his death, he established two gadis or seats of leadership – Nar Narayan Dev Gadi in Ahmedabad and Laxmi Narayan Dev Gadi in Vadtal. He appointed his two adopted sons as acharyas to each gadi to preserve the Sampradaya.
Organization
The influence of Swaminarayan percolates to humanity through multiple organizations. Though he established two gadis, there were several independent organisations arising from them, decades after his death. This included the establishment of BAPS (Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha), Maninagar Swaminarayan Gadi Sansthan, International Swaminarayan Satsang Mandali etc.
BAPS
BAPS was founded in 1907, by Shashtriji Maharaj, who left the Vadtal Gadi of Swaminarayan sampraday and built the first BAPS temple in Bochasanwasi, a town near Anand, Gujarat. Shri Akshar Purushottam refers to Akshar Purushottam darshan, the 7th school of Vedanta.
After over 100 years of growth, the organization now has a global network of over 1100 temples, 3,850 satsang centers, and holds 16000 weekly satsang assemblies (in which children, youth and devotees participate). The organisation is run by 55000 and 900 sadhus, and has over 1 million followers around the world.
It has multiple educational, rural, environmental, disaster relief activities, charities besides the spiritual activities.
BAPS also holds consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations since 1995.
The first hindu stone temple in any middle eastern country is a BAPS Temple, being built currently. Though it will not contain any idols(as idol worship is not allowed in islam) it will contain murals and paintings in walls.
Click here to know more about other Swaminarayan organisations and their activities.
Accessing the Teachings
To access the consciousness of Swaminarayan, the interested practitioner gets initiated from a local swaminarayan centre (like BAPS centre) into the Swaminarayan mantra. After this the initiate needs to practice the mantra along with various kinds of committments like doing morning puja, attendance of satsangs, maintaining purity of conduct, engaging in study of texts of the sampraday and many other activities.
Three texts form the core teachings of the Swaminarayan sampradaya – Shikshapatri, Vachanamrut and Swamini Vato. Although other basic hindu scriptures like Vedas, Upanishads, Brahma Sutras and Bhagavad Gita are studied, the above 3 texts remain as the unique teachings of the Sampradaya.
Besides the above, each independent organization has its own set of teachings according to the interpretation of basic texts by their own sadhus.
The teachings are available in form of books, music, videos, apps, magazines – online as well as offline. There are a whooping 250 number of apps related to Swaminarayan available in the app store.
References
https://www.baps.org/About-BAPS.aspx
Avadhoota Udyana 