Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha
Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha is a Hindu denomination within the Swaminarayan Sampradaya. It was formed in 1905 by Shastri Yagnapurushdas following his conviction that Swaminarayan remained present on earth through a lineage of gurus starting with Gunatitanand Swami. As of August 2016, Mahant Swami Maharaj is the 6th guru and president of BAPS.
The philosophy of BAPS is centred on the doctrine of Akshar-Purushottam Upasana, in which followers worship Swaminarayan as God, or Purushottam, and his choicest devotee, Gunatitanand Swami, as Akshar. As of 2024, BAPS has 44 shikharbaddha mandirs and more than 1,300 mandirs worldwide that facilitate practice of this doctrine by allowing followers to offer devotion to the murtis of Swaminarayan, Gunatitanand Swami, and their successors. BAPS mandirs also feature activities to foster culture and youth development. Many devotees view the mandir as a place for transmission of Hindu values and their incorporation into daily routines, family life, and careers.
History
Formation and early years (1900-1950)
The Gunatit Guru
The basis for the formation of BAPS was Shastriji Maharaj's conviction that Swaminarayan remained present on earth through a lineage of Gunatit Gurus, starting with Gunatitanand Swami, one of Swaminarayan's most prominent disciples, and that Swaminarayan and his choicest devotee, Gunatitanand Swami, were ontologically, Purushottam and Akshar, respectively. According to the BAPS-tradition, Shastriji Maharaj had understood this from his guru, Bhagatji Maharaj, who had Gunatitanand Swami as his guru.Followers of BAPS believe that the Ekantik dharma that Swaminarayan desired to establish is embodied and propagated by the Ekantik Satpurush, the Gunatit Guru. According to Shastriji Maharaj, Swaminarayan had "expressly designated" the Gunatit Guru to spiritually guide the satsang while instructing his nephews to help manage the administration of the fellowship within their respective dioceses. As Kim notes, "For BAPS devotees, the dual murtis in the original Swaminarayan temples imply that Swaminarayan did install a murti of himself alongside the murti of his ideal bhakta or Guru".
Shastriji Maharaj sought to publicly reveal his ideas, and to worship Gunatitanand as the abode of Purushottam, c.q. Swaminarayan. However, his views were rejected by the sadhus of the Vadtal and Ahmedabad dioceses. For the sadhus of the Vadtal diocese, the idea that Swaminarayan had appointed Gunatitanand as his spiritual successor, instead of the two acharyas, was a heretical teaching, and they "refused to worship what they considered to be a human being." Shastriji Maharaj left Vadtal with five swamis and the support of about 150 devotees.
Mandirs to facilitate doctrinal practice
Paralleling Sahajand Swami's building of temples to propagate his teachings, Shastriji Maharaj then set out to build his own mandir to "house the devotional representations of Bhagwan and Guru" and propagate his understanding of Swaminarayan's teachings. On 5 June 1907, Shastriji Maharaj consecrated the murtis of Swaminarayan and Gunatitanand Swami in the central shrine of the shikharbaddha mandir he was constructing in the village of Bochasan in the Kheda District of Gujarat. This event was later seen to mark the formal establishment of the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, which was later abbreviated as BAPS. The Gujarati word Bochasanwasi implies hailing from Bochasan, since the organisation's first mandir was built in this village.Shastriji Maharaj spent the majority of 1908–15 discoursing throughout Gujarat, while continuing construction work of mandirs in Bochasan and Sarangpur, gaining a group of devotees, admirers, and supporters. Over the next four decades, Shastriji Maharaj completed four more shikharbaddha mandirs in Gujarat.
Successors
On 12 August 1910 Shastriji Maharaj met his eventual successor, Yogiji Maharaj, at the house of Jadavji in Bochasan. Yogiji Maharaj was a resident swami at Junagadh Mandir, where Gunatitanand Swami had served as mahant. Yogiji Maharaj regarded Gunatitanand Swami as Akshar and also served the murti of Harikrishna Maharaj which had previously been worshiped by Gunatitanand Swami. As he already believed in the doctrine being preached by Shastriji Maharaj, Yogiji Maharaj left Junagadh on 9 July 1911 with six swamis to join Shastriji Maharaj's mission.On 7 November 1939, 17-year-old Shantilal Patel left his home and was initiated by Shastriji Maharaj into the parshad order, as Shanti Bhagat, on 22 November 1939, and into the swami order, as Narayanswarupdas Swami, on 10 January 1940. Initially, he studied Sanskrit and Hindu scriptures and served as Shastriji Maharaj's personal secretary. In 1946, he was appointed administrative head of the Sarangpur mandir.
In the early part of 1950, Shastriji Maharaj wrote several letters to 28-year-old Shastri Narayanswarupdas expressing a wish to appoint him as the administrative president of the organisation. Initially, Shastri Narayanswarupdas was reluctant to accept the position, citing his young age and lack of experience and suggesting that an elderly, experienced swami should take the responsibility. However, Shastriji Maharaj insisted over several months, until, seeing the wish and insistence of his guru, Shastri Narayanswarupdas accepted the responsibility. On 21 May 1950 at Ambli-Vali Pol in Amdavad, Shastriji Maharaj appointed Shastri Narayanswarupdas as the administrative president of BAPS. He instructed Shastri Narayanswarupdas, who now began to be referred to as Pramukh Swami, to ennoble Satsang under the guidance of Yogiji Maharaj.
In the last few years of his life, Shastriji Maharaj took steps to preserve the growth and future of BAPS by registering BAPS as a charitable trust in 1947 under India's new legal code.
Development and organisational formation (1950–1971)
After the death of Shastriji Maharaj on 10 May 1951, Yogiji Maharaj became the spiritual leader, or guru, of the organisation while Pramukh Swami continued to oversee administrative matters as president of the organisation. Yogiji Maharaj carried Shastriji Maharaj's mission of fostering the Akshar-Purushottam Upasana doctrine by building temples, touring villages, preaching overseas and initiating weekly local religious assemblies for children, youths and elders. In his 20 years as guru, from 1951 to 1971, he visited over 4,000 cities, towns and villages, consecrated over 60 mandirs and wrote over 5,45,000 letters to devotees.Youth movement
This period of BAPS history saw an important expansion in youth activities. Yogiji Maharaj believed that in a time of profound and rapid social ferment, there was an imminent need to save the young from 'degeneration of moral, cultural and religious values'. To fill a void in spiritual activities for youths, Yogiji Maharaj started a regular Sunday gathering of young men in Bombay in 1952. Brear notes, "His flair, dynamism and concern led within ten years to the establishment of many yuvak mandals of dedicated young men in Gujarat and East Africa".In addition to providing religious and spiritual guidance, Yogiji Maharaj encouraged youths to work hard and excel in their studies. Towards realizing such ideals, he would often remind them to stay away from worldly temptations. A number of youths decided to take monastic vows. On 11 May 1961 during the Gadhada Kalash Mahotsav, he initiated 51 college-educated youths into the monastic order as swamis. Mahant Swami Maharaj, initiated as Keshavjivandas Swami, was one of the initiates.
East Africa
Satsang in Africa had started during Shastriji Maharaj's lifetime, as many devotees had migrated to Africa for economic reasons. One of Shastriji Maharaj's senior swamis, Nirgundas Swami, engaged in lengthy correspondence with these devotees, answering their questions and inspiring them to start satsang assemblies in Africa. Eventually, in 1928, Harman Patel took the murtis of Akshar-Purushottam Maharaj to East Africa and started a small centre. Soon, the East Africa Satsang Mandal was established under the leadership of Harman Patel and Magan Patel.In 1955, Yogiji Maharaj embarked on his first foreign tour to East Africa. The prime reason for the visit was to consecrate Africa's first Akshar-Purushottam temple in Mombasa. The temple was inaugurated on 25 April 1955. He also travelled to Nairobi, Nakuru, Kisumu, Tororo, Jinja, Kampala, Mwanza and Dar es salaam. His travels inspired the local devotees to begin temple construction projects. Due to the visit, in a span of five years, the devotees in Uganda completed the construction of temples in Tororo, Jinja and Kampala and asked Yogiji Maharaj to revisit Uganda to install the murtis of Akshar-Purushottam Maharaj. The rapid temple constructions in Africa were helped by the presence of early immigrants, mainly Leva Patels, who came to work as masons, and were particularly skilled in temple building.
As a result, Yogiji Maharaj made a second visit to East Africa in 1960 and consecrated hari mandirs in Kampala, Jinja and Tororo in Uganda. Despite his failing health, Yogiji Maharaj at the age of 78 undertook a third overseas tour of London and East Africa in 1970. Prior to his visit, the devotees had purchased the premises of the Indian Christian Union at Ngara, Kenya in 1966 and remodeled it to resemble a three-spired temple. Yogiji Maharaj inaugurated the temple in Ngara, a suburb of Nairobi in 1970.