Swaminarayan: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 04:44, 21 July 2006

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[[Image:Acharya rakeshprasadji.jpg|right|150px|thumb|H.H.1008 Acharya [[Shree Rakeshprasadji Maharaj]]]]

Today, Swāminārāyan Hinduism has several sects based on differences of opinion in leadership. The Āchāryas of the two Gadis are followed to guide an aspirant towards the proper path to reach Akshardham (heaven) as written in the Vachanarut "The devotee who is aashrit of Dharmakul (i.e. he who has received initiation from Dharmavanshi Acharya and remains loyal to the Acharya) gets a divine Bhram-state body by God’s wish…” (Vachanamrut, Gadhada Pratham Chapter 1). Gunatitanand Swami, one of the main sadhus of Swaminarayan Bhagwan, says "He who insults the temples, Acharyas, sadhus and satsangis will find his roots being destroyed and will inevitably fall from the satsang.” (Swami ni Vato Prakran 5, Vat 104). Followers of the Bochāsanwāsi Akshar Purushottam Sansthā (BAPS Swāminārāyan Sansthā) follow a lineage of spiritually enlightened gurus beginning with Gunātitānand Swami as an immediate successor of Lord Swāminārāyan, to the present-day leadership of H.H. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pramukh_Swami_Maharaj">Pramukh Swami Maharaj</a>, whom devotees believe is the very Ekāntik Sādhu (enlightened saint) that the Vachanāmrut (the Swāminārāyan Sampradāya's primary scripture which was written verbatim to the discourses delivered orally in various assemblies by five of Swāminārāyan's monk-scholars) speaks of in several instances. The Akshar-Purushottam philosophy, the ideology that is the foundation of BAPS, seeks to understand a dualistic relationship between the only two entities of the universe that supersede māyā, namely the entity of Akshar (synonymous to the Vedāntic idea of the macrocosmic Brahman) and Purushottam, the supreme reality referred to as Paramesthin in scriptures of Vedānta.

Swaminarayan Bhagwan adopted Ayodhyaprasadji from his elder brother Rampratapji and adopted Raghuvirji from his younger brother Ichcharamji. He accepted the two as his own sons and handed the Northern - NarNarayan Dev Desh (diocese) to Acharya Shri Ayodhyaprasadji Maharaj and the Southern- LaxmiNarayan Dev Desh to Acharya Shri Raghuvirji Maharaj in Vadtal on VS 1882 (1826 AD) Kartik Sud 11 - Prabodhini Ekadashi (ironically on the very same day He was given the Acharya-pad by Ramanand Swami).