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Swaminarayan

For other uses, see Swaminarayan (disambiguation).

Swaminarayan
Illustration of Swaminarayan writing the Shikshapatri
Personal
Born
Ghanshyam Pande

3 April 1781[1]
Chhapaiya, Kingdom of Oudh (present-day Uttar Pradesh, India)
Died1 June 1830(1830-06-01) (aged 49)
Gadhada, Baroda State (present-day Gujarat, India)
ReligionHinduism
Organization
Founder ofSwaminarayan Sampradaya
Religious career
GuruSwami Ramanand

Swaminarayan (IAST: Svāmīnārāyaṇa; 3 April 1781 – 1 June 1830), also known as Sahajanand Swami, was a God and ascetic believed by followers to be a manifestation of Krishna[2][3][4] or the highest manifestation of Purushottama,[5][6] around whom the Swaminarayan Sampradaya developed.

In 1800, he was initiated into the Uddhava sampradaya by his guru, Swami Ramanand, and was given the name Sahajanand Swami. Despite opposition, in 1802, Ramanand handed over the leadership of the Uddhava Sampradaya to him before his death.[7] According to the Swaminarayan tradition, Sahajanand Swami became known as Swaminarayan, and the Uddhava Sampradaya became known as the Swaminarayan Sampradaya, after a gathering in which he taught the Swaminarayan Mantra to his followers.

He emphasized "moral, personal, and social betterment,"[8] and ahimsa.[9] He is also remembered within the sect for undertaking reforms for women[10] and the poor,[11] and performing large-scale non-violent yajñas (fire sacrifices).[12]

During his lifetime, Swaminarayan institutionalized his charisma and beliefs in various ways.[13] He built six mandirs to facilitate devotional worship of God by his followers,[14][15][16] and encouraged the creation of a scriptural tradition,[13][17][18] including the Shikshapatri, which he wrote in 1826.[19] In 1826, through a legal document titled the Lekh, Swaminarayan created two dioceses, the Laxmi Narayan Dev Gadi (Vadtal Gadi) and Nar Narayan Dev Gadi (Ahmedabad Gadi), with a hereditary leadership of acharyas and their wives from his own extended family,[web 1] who were authorized to install statues of deities in temples and to initiate ascetics.[13]

  1. ^ Williams (2001), p. 13.
  2. ^ Kim (2010).
  3. ^ Jones (2005), p. 8890.
  4. ^ Olson (2007), p. 336.
  5. ^ Williams (2018), p. 81.
  6. ^ Singleton, Mark; Goldberg, Ellen (2013). Gurus of modern yoga. New York, NY. ISBN 978-0-19-993871-1. OCLC 861692270.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. ^ Williams (2018), p. 17.
  8. ^ Jones (2005), p. 8889.
  9. ^ Williams (2018), p. 27.
  10. ^ Raval (2012).
  11. ^ Mangalnidhidas (2016).
  12. ^ Paramtattvadas, Williams & Amrutvijaydas (2016).
  13. ^ a b c Schreiner (2001).
  14. ^ S.Patel (2017), p. 65.
  15. ^ Trivedi (2015), p. 353.
  16. ^ Hatcher (2020).
  17. ^ Paramtattvadas (2017), p. 64.
  18. ^ Williams (2018), p. 200.
  19. ^ Parikh (2016).


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