Swaminarayan Movement

Swaminarayan Hinduism is an early 19th-century reform movement in Gujarat that is a significant transnational movement in the early 21st century. Sahajanand Swami (1781–1830) was a Brahman born in Chhapia, near Ayodhya, in North India, who traveled as a youth throughout India as a spiritual seeker before taking initiation and residence in Gujarat in 1802. As leader of a small band of world renouncers, he built temples, initiated sadhus, and preached reforms of conduct and theology that attracted followers at a time of social and political turmoil when the British were establishing control over Gujarat.

He codified his moral reforms in the 212 verses of the Shikshapatri. His followers take five vows: (1) to practice nonviolence and not to eat meat, (2) to avoid all intoxicating ...