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 drinks and drugs, (3) to avoid adultery and sexual impurity, (4) to respect the personal and property rights of others and not to steal, and (5) not to defile oneself. The sadhus who propagated his message and practices took more stringent ascetic vows to “renounce the world”: (1) celibacy and strict avoidance of women, (2) renunciation of family and social ties, (3) renunciation of attachment to objects of the senses, (4) nonattachment to money and material possessions, and (5) avoidance of pride caused by attachment to ego. He opposed the self-immolation of widows (sati) and the infanticide of girls.

The sadhus preserved his theology in the Vachanamrit, which follows the basic philosophy of modified nondualism of Ramanuja and the Krishna devotion common in Gujarat. He placed images of Nar-Narayana (Krishna and Arjuna) and of Lakshmi-Narayana in the two major temples in Ahmedabad and Vadtal. He received the title, Swaminarayan, and his images were placed in the temples. He adopted two nephews and appointed them and their descendents as householder acharyas to administer two dioceses with headquarters at the major temples in Ahmedabad and Vadtal.

Divisions later created new Swaminarayan groups. A sadhu named Shastri Maharaj left the Vadtal temple in 1906 and established the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Sanstha (BAPS) in the following year. He emphasized the strict discipline of Swaminarayan and the theological principles of Purushottam (the highest divine reality) and Akshar (the abode of god in the chief devotee). Muktajivandas Swami, a prominent sadhu in the Ahmedabad temple established the Swaminarayan Gadi. He rejected the claims of the householder acharyas to be legitimate successors of Swaminarayan and built a new temple in Maninagar. He died in 1970 in Bolton in the United Kingdom while visiting his followers. Dadubhai Patel and his brother, Bapabhai, separated from BAPS in 1960 and formed the Yogi Divine Society. The group rejects the authority of the BAPS leader and maintains an order of female ascetics who follow a discipline similar to male sadhus. These Swaminarayan groups have institutions, temples, schools, medical clinics, and other institutions in India, East Africa, Britain, the [Page 1242]United States, and other countries, attracting support primarily from Gujarati migrants.