Gandhinagar: Swaminarayan sect’s continuous tactics of portraying their ‘Bhagwan Swaminarayan’ (barely a 200-year-old Hindu Ramanandi saint Sahajanand Swami, who was formerly Ghanshyam Pandey in his worldly life) as someone supreme is facing flak. This is because, in an attempt to show Sahajanand Swami as supreme and superior God, the saints of the Swaminarayan sect across its various branches are fictitiously and falsely portraying Hindu Gods like Shiva, Parvati, Hanuman, and saints like Jalaram Bapa as inferior and as the ones who were serving a 200-year-old Sahajanand Swami.

In the latest, Bochasanvasi Akshar Purushottam Sanstha (BAPS)’s book ‘Nilkanth Charitra’ has sparked off controversy. This book has a specific mention that Sanatani Hindu Gods Shiva and Parvati served Nilkanth (Sahajanand Swami’s childhood name as claimed by the Swaminarayan sect) for days.

Throughout the day on Tuesday, March 5, all Gujarati media channels were seen critical while discussing such fabricated portrayals in BAPS literature. Various Sanatani saints came on TV screens and lambasted Swaminarayan sect priests in the strongest possible language for distortion, falsification, and creation of fictitious tales involving Sanatani Hindu Gods in an attempt to show Sahajanand Swami (Swaminarayan Bhagwan as per followers of the Swaminarayan sect) as supreme and superior compared to Sanatani Gods.

Just a couple of days ago, another book by the Swaminarayan sect had come to the limelight in which Jalaram Bapa was portrayed as someone at the service of Swaminarayan saint Gunatinand Swami. A false portrayal also claimed that Jalaram Bapa’s free meal Annakshetra seva was inspired by blessings of Gunatinand Swami. Jalaram Mandir Virpur had clarified that no such incident was known before and the fact was Jalaram Bapa was inspired only by his guru Bhojalram, who was a Sanatani saint from Amreli. Virpur town on Tuesday observed a complete strike protesting such tactics of the Swaminarayan sect.

A couple of years ago, a huge controversy had erupted after Hanumanji was shown as Sahajanand Swami’s bhakta in a mural at Sarangpur Mandir by the Vadtal Swaminarayan branch. After days-long protests and agitation by Sanatani saints, Swaminarayanis had removed the controversial mural and tendered an apology.

At the Mumbai-based Mandir of the Maninagar Gaadi branch of the Swaminarayan sect, there are two controversial murals, pictures of which are viral on social media. In one mural, Hanumanji is shown as a bhakta of Sahajanand Swami, while in the other mural, Shiva, Parvati, and Ganesha are standing with folding hands before Sahajanand Swami as if these centuries-old (aadi and anaadi) Gods were bhaktas of a 200-year-old Sahajanand Swami, who himself was a bhakta of Hanumanji and Narayan Vishnu.

Last month, a group of Hindu journalists, scholars, saints, and others met in Ahmedabad and passed a resolution to serve notices to all branches of the Swaminarayan sect regarding false and distorted mentions in their various literature about Hindu Sanatani Gods. It was also decided to take the legal path if notices are not replied to. While there are a number of other sects inside and outside the Sanatan umbrella, none is seen in the practice of showing their own God superior by portraying ancient Sanatani Gods, including Panchdev, as inferior. DeshGujarat