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 (perfect devotee), 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 (spiritual fellowship) 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 |266x266px 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 (Sarangpur – 1916, Gondal – 1934, Atladra – 1945, and Gadhada – 1951).
Successors On 12 August 1910 Shastriji Maharaj met his eventual successor,
Yogiji Maharaj, at the house of Jadavji in Bochasan. 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. However, Shastriji Maharaj insisted over several months, until, seeing the wish and insistence of his guru, Shastri Narayanswarupdas accepted the responsibility. 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.
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. To fill a void in spiritual activities for youths, Yogiji Maharaj started a regular Sunday gathering (Yuvak Mandal) of young men in Bombay 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. He also travelled to
Nairobi,
Nakuru,
Kisumu,
Tororo,
Jinja,
Kampala,
Mwanza and
Dar es salaam. 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. Yogiji Maharaj inaugurated the temple in Ngara, a suburb of Nairobi in 1970. Beginning 1953, D. D. Meghani held assemblies in his office that brought together several followers in an organized setting. In 1958, leading devotees including Navin Swaminarayan, Praful Patel and Chatranjan Patel from India and East Africa began arriving to the UK.
United States Yogiji Maharaj was unable to travel to the United States during his consecutive foreign tours. Nonetheless, he asked Dr. K.C. Patel to begin satsang assemblies in the United States. He gave Patel the names of 28 Satsangi students to help conduct Satsang assemblies. The tour motivated followers to start satsang sabhas in their own homes every Sunday around the country. Thus, a fledgling Satsang mandal formed in the United States before the death of Yogiji Maharaj in 1971.
Growth and further global expansion (1971–2016) After
Yogiji Maharaj's death,
Pramukh Swami Maharaj became both the spiritual and administrative head of BAPS in 1971. He was the fifth spiritual guru of the BAPS. Under his leadership, BAPS has grown into a global Hindu organization and has witnessed expansion in several areas. His work has been built on the foundations laid by his gurus – Shastriji Maharaj and Yogiji Maharaj.
Personal outreach (1971–1981) Immediately upon taking helm, Pramukh Swami Maharaj ventured on a hectic spiritual tour in the first decade of his role as the new Spiritual Guru. Despite health conditions—
cataract operation in 1980—he continued to make extensive tours to more than 4000 villages and towns, visiting over 67,000 homes and performing Murti Pratishtha (image installation) ceremonies in 77 temples in this first decade. He also embarked on a series of overseas tours beginning in 1974 as the guru. Subsequent tours were made in 1977, 1979, and 1980. Overall, he embarked on a total of 28 international spiritual tours between 1974 and 2014. His travels were motivated by his desire to reach out to devotees for their spiritual uplift and to spread the teachings of
Swaminarayan.
Festivals and organisation (1981–1992) The personal outreach (vicharan) of the earlier era (1971–1981) by Pramukh Swami Maharaj through traveling to villages and towns, writing letters to devotees, and giving discourses contributed to sustaining a global BAPS community. The Gujarati migration patterns in the early 1970s, globalization factors and economic dynamics between India and the West saw the organization transform into a transnational devotional movement. organizational needs spanned from transmitting cultural identity through spiritual discourses to the newer much alienated generation in the new lands, temple upkeep and traveling to regional and local centres to disseminate spiritual knowledge. As a result, this era saw a significant rise in the number of swamis initiated to maintain the organizational needs of the community – both in India and abroad. Furthermore, having access to a greater volunteer force and community enabled the organization to celebrate festivals on a massive scale which marked the arrival of a number of milestone anniversaries in the history of the organization, including the bicentenary of
Swaminarayan, bicentenary of
Gunatitanand Swami, and the centenary of
Yogiji Maharaj. Some effects of the celebration included a maturation of organizational capacity, increased commitment and skill of volunteers, and tangentially, an increased interest in the monastic path. The Swaminarayan bicentenary celebration, a once in a life-time event for Swaminarayan followers, was held in
Ahmedabad in April 1981. On 7 March 1981, 207 youths were initiated into the monastic order. In 1985 the bicentenary birth of Gunatitanand Swami was celebrated. During this festival, 200 youths were initiated into the monastic order. The organization held Cultural Festivals of India in London in 1985 and New Jersey in 1991. By the end of the era, owing to the success of these festivals and the cultural impact it had on the youths, the organization saw a need to create a permanent exhibition in the
Swaminarayan Akshardham (Gandhinagar) temple in 1991. In 1992, a month-long festival was held to both celebrate Yogiji Maharaj's centenary and to inaugurate a permanent exhibition and temple called Swaminarayan Akshardham (Gandhinagar). The festival also saw 125 youths initiated into the monastic order bringing the total number of swamis initiated to more than 700 in fulfillment to a prophecy made by
Yogiji Maharaj.
Mandirs and global growth (1992–2016) In the third leg of the era, the organization saw an unprecedented level of mandir construction activities taking place in order to accommodate the rapid rise of adherents across the global Indian diaspora. Initially, beginning with the inauguration of
Swaminarayan Akshardham (Gandhinagar) in 1992. A number of
shikharbaddha mandirs (large traditional stone mandirs) were inaugurated in major cities;
London (1995),
Nairobi (1999), New Delhi (2004),
Houston (2004),
Chicago (2004),
Swaminarayan Akshardham (New Delhi) (2005),
Toronto (2007),
Atlanta (2007),
Los Angeles (2012), and
Robbinsville (New Jersey) (2014).
Mahant Swami Maharaj as Guru (2016 – present) On 20 July 2012, in the presence of senior swamis in Ahmedabad, Pramukh Swami Maharaj revealed Keshavjivandas Swami (Mahant Swami) as his spiritual successor. Following the death of Pramukh Swami Maharaj on 13 August 2016, Mahant Swami Maharaj became the 6th guru and president of BAPS. In 1961, he was ordained as a swami by Yogiji Maharaj and named Keshavjivandas Swami. Due to his appointment as the head (mahant) of the mandir in Mumbai, he became known as Mahant Swami. He continues the legacy of the Aksharbrahma Gurus by visiting BAPS mandirs worldwide, guiding spiritual aspirants, initiating devotees, ordaining swamis, creating and sustaining mandirs, and encouraging the development of scriptures. In his discourses, he mainly speaks on how one can attain God and peace through ridding one's ego (nirmani), seeing divinity in all (divyabhav), not seeing, talking, or adapting any negative nature or behavior of others (no abhav-avgun), and keeping unity (samp). In 2017, he performed the ground-breaking ceremony for shikharbaddha mandirs in
Johannesburg, South Africa, and
Sydney, Australia, and in April 2019, he performed the ground-breaking ceremony for a traditional stone temple in
Abu Dhabi. In May 2021, six workers involved in the construction of the
Akshardham temple filed suit against the temple administrators resulting in a government investigation of potential labor law violations. Spokespersons for BAPS said that the claims were without merit. In November 2021, the workers amended the suit to include BAPS temples across the United States and alleged that the temple authorities had misrepresented unskilled workers as specialists in stone carving and painting so that they qualified for
R-1 visas. The lawsuit claims that the workers are recruited from
Dalits and
Adivasis, both marginalized communities in India. In July 2023, a dozen plaintiffs voluntarily withdrew their names from the lawsuit, citing that they were coerced and misled by an immigration advocate, Swati Sawant, into making false accusations against BAPS to stall the construction of the temple. The workers stated that Sawant lured them with a promise of citizenship in the US and gave false warnings of police action and imprisonment if they came forward and told the truth about the false allegations. ==Akshar-Purshottam Upasana==