Pramukh Swami (b. 1921)

Pramukh Swami (Narayanswarupdas Swami) is the leader of the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Sanstha (BAPS) subgroup of Swaminarayan Hinduism. He is revered as the chief devotee of Swaminarayan in a lineage that goes back to Gunatitanand Swami, a companion of Swaminarayan in early 19th-century Gujarat. Pramukh Swami was born on December 7, 1921, to Motibhai and Diwaliben Patel in Chansad, Gujarat, India. BAPS Swaminarayan temples celebrate his birthday with elaborate ceremonies each year. He took full initiation as a sadhu in 1940 and soon became manager of the temple at Sarangpur and then, in 1947, private secretary to Shastri Maharaj, who had founded BAPS as a reform movement in 1908. Narayanswarupdas Swami was appointed president of BAPS in 1950 by his predecessor, Yogiji Maharaj, and people called him Pramukh Swami, which means “President Swami.”

According BAPS theology, the chief devotee of Swaminarayan in every period is the Akshar, the abode of Purushottam, the highest manifestation of the divine. Pramukh Swami assumed spiritual leadership of BAPS at the death of Yogiji Maharaj in 1971. Followers believe that he is the perfect devotee who follows all the sadhu disciplines perfectly. Hence, the more humble, world renouncing, and self-effacing he is, the more reverence and devotion followers bestow on him. Images of him and his predecessors are objects of worship in BAPS temples. He is the guru for BAPS followers, who accept his teachings as divinely inspired, and they seek his counsel when making decisions about marriage, employment, business, and family. His decisions are final regarding all BAPS institutional matters.

BAPS has grown dramatically under Pramukh Swami's leadership. He has personally dedicated 713 temples and initiated more than 700 men as sadhus. In 1981, he established a Sadhu Training Center at Sarangpur, Gujarat, where, prior to initiation, young men go through a 4-year curriculum that includes Hindu and Swaminarayan scriptures and philosophy, devotional music, public speaking in three languages, Sanskrit, priestly skills, and world religions. Pramukh Swami then assigns each sadhu to tasks in the institution. [Page 1024]Followers meet in more than 3,300 BAPS centers in India and abroad, especially where Gujarati migrants have settled in East Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. He dedicated Akshardham in New Delhi in 2006 as the largest Hindu temple complex in the world. Other BAPS temples of marble and sandstone in London, Toronto, Chicago, Houston, and Atlanta attract large numbers of worshippers and tourists. Pramukh Swami has been active in hosting large international cultural and religious festivals, including the centenary celebration in Ahmedabad in December 2007. The growing size and wealth of BAPS supports eight hospitals and clinics and more than 30 educational institutions.

BAPS has gained a reputation as one of the wealthiest and fastest growing Hindu groups. It has been a leader of the neo-Hindu reform movement emerging from the colonial period and has become a strong transnational movement among Gujarati Hindus in India, East Africa, Britain, and North America.