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Shravan
Vad 6th, Ashadhi Samvat 1856 - 21st August 1799.
At first glance this day may seem like
any other. The month of Shravan is the holiest in the Hindu calendar.
However, the day of Shravan Vad 6th attained a greater auspiciousness
when Bhagwan Swaminarayan's lotus-feet graced and sanctified the soil
of Loj, a rustic village near the port of Mangrol, in southern Saurashtra.
This event marked a monumental turning point in the history of Gujarat,
Bharatvarsha and the world. Therefore the same day, this year, marks
the bicentennial anniversary of His advent to Loj. To commemorate this
landmark event we offer here our humble and devotional tribute to Bhagwan
Swaminarayan, by examining the unique factors which led Him to sow the
seeds of the Swaminarayan Sampradaya in Gujarat, in light of the religious
and cultural conditions then prevailing.
Divine Descent
Since time immemorial sacred Bharatvarsha
has continually been graced by incarnations, sages, mystics and enlightened
personages. Of the several reasons cited by Hindu Dharma's scriptures
for the Lord's descent, one is to vanquish evil and re-establish Dharma.
The second is to personally grant devotees His darshan, fruits of their
sincere devotion and fulfil their devotional aspirations. A third reason
is to eradicate mundane ignorance, which has been the source of suffering
and misery. Thus people are enlightened and freed from the cycle of
births and deaths. It was for the above three reasons that the Lord
Purushottam incarnated as Ghanshyam in Chhapaiya, near Ayodhya on Chaitra
Sud 9, Samvat 1837 (2 April 1781 CE). This crowned
the Bhakti renaissance, initiated around the 15th century and perpetuated
by saintly personages such as: Tulsidas, Surdas, Tukaram, Guru Nanak
and the later Sikh gurus, Raidas, Kabir, Mirabai, Narsinh Mehta, Sant
Jnaneshwar, Eknath, Namdev, Chaitanya, Vallabhacharya and others.
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