|| Swami Shreeji ||

Prasangs - The Swaminarayan Scriptures

For Juniors
Swamini Vato
Story - Struggles in Life
Activity: Mahamantra Lekhan
Activity: Crack the Code
For Seniors
YYE - Distilling the Essence
Youth Sabha Report for Week 1

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|| Swami Shreeji ||

P RASANG 1

shastra: religious text

darbar: residence or
estate

jiva: soul
ishwar: an elevated soul
with supernatural talents
maya: that which distracts us from God
Brahma: an ideal devotee of God

Over the course of at least a decade, Lord Swaminarayan held sabhas regularly, offering spiritual guidance and advice to devotees. His style of speaking, delivery,
and wide range of topics attracted listeners from all over the region. He made sure to
speak in a way that everyone understood the true meaning of religion and the role
that it played in the devotees daily lives. His audiences included devotees with many
different backgrounds, from rural farmers and merchants to learned scholars and
paramhansas. Many of Lord Swaminarayans discourses have been recorded in
a shastra called the Vachanamrut.
In the time period from 1819 to 1829, four of the scholarly paramhansas in the
Swaminarayan Sampraday, Muktanand Swami, Gopalanand Swami, Nityanand Swami and Shukanand Swami, compiled and wrote down these discourses. After being
edited by Lord Swaminarayan and sorted to communicate the essence of ancient Hindu scriptures like the Vedas, Upanishads, Brahmasutras, Bhagvad Gita and the
Shrimad Bhagvatam, the compilation was shortened to a total of 273 discourses and
transformed into the Vachanamrut. The Vachanamrut is undoubtedly the most sacred shastra in the Swaminarayan Sampraday.
Every discourse starts with a brief paragraph explaining the time, day, date,
year, and location of the sabha. In addition, this paragraph contains a detailed description of the various clothes and garments worn by Lord Swaminarayan. The sabhas
were held in locations all over Gujarat, including Gadhada, Sarangpur, Kariyani,
Loya, Panchala, Vartal, Amdavad, Aslali and Jetalpur. Lord Swaminarayan stayed for
an extended period of time in Gadhada, so many of the discourses from the
Vachanamrut took place there, specifically at the darbar of Dada Khachar. In many
of the discourses, Lord Swaminarayan wore white clothing and, according to ancient
tradition, started off the sabha by either asking a question or by taking questions
from the audience. As a result, the Vachanamrut deals with many spiritual and philosophical topics, focusing on the nature of jiva, ishwar, maya, Brahma and Parabrahma. In addition, several of the discourses cover the concept of moksha, the value of a
guru, happiness, misery, non-violence, prayer, bhakti, morals, good company, service,
positive attitude, introspection, dhyan and many practical aspects of daily life and our
sadhana. Overall, the Vachanamrut is a goldmine of knowledge in which devotees
can find the answers and solutions to even the most difficult questions and problems.

P RASANG 2
duct

Towards the end of his physical life, Lord Swaminarayan wrote a code of confor all followers of the Swaminarayan Sampraday, includ-

Dada Khachar: one of

Lord Swaminarayans
foremost devotees

dhyan: meditation
sadhana: spiritual journey

|| Swami Shreeji ||

Shruti: what is heard,

direct revelation of
eternal Truth
Smruti: what is remembered, dharmic
traditions passed down
over time

brahmacharya: the
state of celibate life

ing brahmacharis, sadhus, householders, kings, married women, and widows. His
purpose was to combine the teachings of the Shruti and Smruti shastras into a short
book. He started writing the Shikshapatri (which means booklet of moral instructions) on January 1, 1826, and finished it the next month on February 12, composing
a total of 212 verses. This booklet served as a moral and spiritual guide for all of the
devotees of the Swaminarayan Sampraday to follow. It offers instructions on a wide
range of topics, including health, hygiene, dress code, diet, etiquette, diplomacy for
the royalty, finance, trade, education, friendship, morality, austerity, atonement, celebrations, religious duties, forms of worship, and the aim of life. The Shikshapatri is
different from the Vachanamrut because it focuses on how to perform worldly duties
while keeping religion in mind as opposed to explaining the meaning of religion and
spirituality.
The instructions presented in the Shikshapatri are for everyoneyoung and
old; men and women; married, unmarried and widowed; and householders and sadhus. Lord Swaminarayan says that anyone who obeys the Shikshapatri will live a
happy and fulfilling life. One of the main topics is purity, specifically both outer and
inner purity in all devotees. The three fundamental purities that he emphasizes are: 1)
Purity of Diet, 2) Purity of Conduct, and 3) Purity of Soul.
1) Purity of Diet: He instructs his disciples not to eat meat, eggs, onions and garlic
in addition to harmful substances like alcohol, tobacco and drugs.
2) Purity of Conduct: He instructs not to be disrespectful to any deities, pilgrim
places, devotees, sadhus, and the Vedas. He forbids gambling and bad company.
For sadhus he instructs absolute brahmacharya.
3) Purity of Soul: The final liberation of the soul is possible by joining the jiva
with Brahma (Aksharbrahma).
Lord Swaminarayan also instructed that the Shikshapatri should be read daily by all
devotees.

|| Swami Shreeji ||

S WAMINI V ATO

Padchhyne pugy nahi tem

vishayno pr ve tem nathi. Mte
gnan thy tyre sukh thy chhe.
A shadow cannot be caught. Similarly, material desires
also cannot be fulfilled. Therefore, happiness is experienced when spiritual wisdom is attained.
Chapter 5, Vt 191.

Jetlu ki mymay sukh chhe te

sarve dukh vinnu hoy nahi e vt
pan ek jni rkhvi.

One should keep in mind that whatever happiness exists

in maya is not without misery.
Chapter 1, Vt 25.

Ek jane lkh rupiyni buddhi lidhi

temaj mokshani buddhi anek prakrni mot thaki shikhy chhe.
Someone bought wisdom for 100,000 rupees. However,
the wisdom for achieving moksha can be learnt from the
God-realized Sadhu.
Chapter 1, Vt 27.

A CTIVITY : MAHAMANTRA LEKHAN

This year is the Sarva Suhrad Sopan. Su-hraday-bhav has
so many meanings, and encompasses the one-heartedness, the
unity and the spiritual harmony between us all.
The Anoopam Mission mandir belongs to our worldwide
Anoopam Mission family, and so we wanted all haribhakto to
help to build the mandir in the UK!
Guruvarya Param Pujya Sahebji has said that mandirs are
built from the bhav, bhakti, samarpan and prarthana of
haribhakto. So it is with the suhrad samarpan of your prayers
offered here through mahamantra lekhan, that this mandir
will arise! Go to www.anoopam.org/mantralekhan and write
the Swaminarayan Mahamantra for 10 minutes!

Swamini Vato
Swaminarayan Aksharpith, Amdavad - 4, INDIA.
Copyright Swaminarayan Aksharpith.

S TORY : S TRUGGLES IN L IFE

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a
small opening appeared, he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its
body through that little hole.
Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It
appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it
could go no farther. Then the man decided to help
the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and
snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The
butterfly then emerged easily.
But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled
wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly
because he expected that, at any moment, the wings
would enlarge and expand to be able to support the
body, which would contract in time. Neither happened!
In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life
crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled
wings. It never was able to fly.
What the man in his kindness and haste did not
understand was that the restricting cocoon and the
struggle required for the butterfly to get through
the tiny opening were Gods way of forcing fluid
from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that
it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in
our life. If God allowed us to go through our life
without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We
would not be as strong as what we could have been.
And we could never fly.
Discussion Questions
What is the best way to deal with struggles in life?
How have your struggles helped you grow as a person?

|| Swami Shreeji ||

|| Swami Shreeji ||

by Shree Patel

rying to read and understand the plethora

of Hindu scriptures can be a mind-boggling exercise. Thousands upon thousands of firsthand encounters with the Truth, all told from different
perspectives by a host of God-realized saints. Who
wouldnt be daunted by this task? And more practically, who simply has the time in this hectic, modern age?
Thankfully, we dont need to parse through endless
pages of text to find the answers that we seek. God
Himself, in the form of Swaminarayan Bhagwan, took
care of this for us. He did this by bestowing upon us the
Vachanamrut and the Shikshapatri.
The very name Vachanamrut indicates its purpose.
Vachan meaning words and amrut meaning nectar
words of nectar, or the distilled essence of all the
scriptures as spoken by God.
Swaminarayan Bhagwan had learned all the core scriptures at an early age. Indeed, He was engaging in debates with learned scholars at the age of 7 and winning them! And as Nilkanth Varni, He undertook an epic journey throughout India to every one of the holy
places to research the different ways that Hindu philosophy was being taught. He finally stopped that journey
when He found an abundance of Hindu knowledge being passed on in its purest form: a small collection of
sadhus led by Ramanand Swami in Gujarat.
So by virtue of exhaustive study and experience Swaminarayan Bhagwan was the leading authority on Hindu scriptures and philosophy in His day. When
He spoke, He took the essence of all our scriptures and
applied it to contemporary times. And thats
the significant point: beyond condensing down the key
points of our Hindu faith, He went further and showed
how to apply this knowledge in our day-to-day lives.
Right here, right now.

It is one thing to have all the answers, but it is another

to be able to connect to them in a modern, practical
way. Now this may all sound great in theory, but how
does it work in practice? Lets take a look at some examples.
Anyone who has tried it knows that meditation, an ancient and powerful form of prayer, is difficult to perform during a day and age when our minds are engaged in endless forms of mental stimulation and information overload. Accordingly, Swaminarayan Bhagwan
advocated mantra-recitation (dhun) as an alternative
form of prayer. This is much easier to do anytime, anyplace and anywhere.
We lead lives that are exceedingly active. Not many are
engaged privately or professionally in activities that
lend themselves to contemplation and introspection.
As a result, Swaminarayan Bhagwan emphasized karma
yoga, or the practice of selfless service as a primary
method of pleasing God. As Sahebdada says, serve
humanity in order to serve God. This is something that
we can do, right? Amidst all of the hustle and bustle in
our lives, we can strive to develop the singular motivation to serve others instead of ourselves. Not necessarily easy, but definitely achievable.
Swaminarayan Bhagwan also placed primary emphasis
on Guru bhakti, devotional surrender to a Guru as a
means of realizing God. Gurur Brahma, Gurur Vishnu,
Gurur Devo Maheshvara, Gurur Sakshat Param Brahma (My Guru is Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, and He is
the manifest form of the Supreme Lord Himself) is a
shloka that all Hindus learn but somewhere along the
way it got lost as a central tenet of Hindu philosophy.
Swaminarayan Bhagwan brought it back, for He knew
that we as spiritual seekers struggle to connect to God
in the abstract. But the easiest and best way to connect
to God is to simply recognize the form that is present
right here in front of us.

|| Swami Shreeji ||

All of these concepts have been prevalent throughout

the history of our religion. But Swaminarayan Bhagwan
did us the immense favor of choosing the specific ones
that we need to focus on here and now. He explained
all of these principles and answered many deep philosophical questions in 273 discourses, which were meticulously compiled by several of his paramhansas.
These comprise the Vachanamrut.

In the Shikshapatri, Swaminarayan Bhagwan wrote by

His own hand the standards by which He wanted His
sadhus and followers to abide in their daily lives. He did
this to remove any ambiguity. It also serves to outline a
code of conduct for devotees in a time of great personal, yet unrestrained, freedom. In our modern age, access to education, information, technology, entertainment and travel is unprecedented. But there are two
sides to every coin, and all of these things can be harmful as well as beneficial.
Going full speed down a path of limitless consumption
can be very dangerous from a spiritual standpoint. For
example, I recently came along a startling statistic: children see, on average, eighteen thousand murders and
violent acts on TV before they finish high school! Do we
ever stop and think about what we are letting into our
minds?! Our religion tells us that to achieve lasting
peace and happiness we need to achieve purity in
body, mind, and soul. But doing so involves living within certain limits and constraints. This is what Swaminarayan Bhagwan outlines for us in the Shikshapatri.
But heres the best part. Swaminarayan Bhagwans advancement of Akshar Purushottam philosophy the
process by which we attach ourselves to a God-realized
Gunatit saint (Akshar) in order to achieve God
(Purushottam) means the elimination of any guesswork
as to how to apply both the knowledge of the
Vachanamrut and the guidelines of the Shikshapatri
specifically to our individual lives. For we have been
blessed with the ultimate living, breathing personal interpreter of these eternal scriptures: our own beloved
Gunatit Guru, Sant Bhagwant Sahebji!

|| Swami Shreeji ||

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Sahajanand Charitra: The Swaminarayan Scriptures

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