JaiSrinivasa

Jai Sriman narayan I was wondering how authentic the Skanda Purana is, so many people have said made reference to this book and often i cant seem to find it in there. There seems to be many versions of this book, has it been interpolated and currupted?

Jai Sri Rama Thanks for that reply Mohan but it doesnt really answer the question!!!! In Vedic religion the feet are often touched a revered so it seems a odd that we cant see the feet of the divine mother except for on her appearance. Can i have some sensible, theologically/phillisophically backed answers??

Jai Sri Rama Thank you very much it is a nice explaination. I was well aware that Sita Rama is anknowledged very highly in the sampraday hence RamaNavmi, Hanuman Puja etc... but was curious as to the absence of deities in the major temples. It is very nice to here about the early history of the sect, in most books and articles much is not written on these early days of the sect. I know that Shajanand swami worked in a similar way in Junagadh mandir, here he installed UmaMaheshwar in one the main Shrines because he wanted to avoid conflict with the SHiva Bhaktas who dominated the Girnar-Junagadh. I have another question for you DasKadas. I hope you dont mind me asking so many, questions, its just that i have a deep facination and curiosity with the history and politics of Swaminarayan Sect (even though my own beleifs differ). My question cocerns the depiction of Swaminarayan in his murthies. All the Hindu Gods are depiced in different ways with different Hand gestures (Mudras), different colours, weapons etc... These details are all given in scriptures so when Sthapathis make Murthies they know how Vishnu needs to be carved, how Ganesh should be made etc... I Want to know that Swaminarayan is depicted a particular way as having Abhaya Mudra in one hand and holding a cloth in another hand (just as Vishnu holds Shank Chakra and Shiva hold Trisul-Damru). What is the symbolism of this form? And who decided that swaminarayan murthies should be made like this? Also did Swaminarayan himself decided to install his parents (Dharmadev and BhaktiMata) in temples?

Jai Sri Rama Why is it that we can only have darshan of Srimati RadhaRani's Lotus feet on her appearance day, and similary only have darshan of Devi Sita's lotus feet on Her appearance day only? Why can we not have darshan of The divine consort's lotus feet on days other than her appearance day??

Jai SiyaRama Thank you for your reply, it seem to me that the Original sampradaya nd the other sansthas differ in their view of Krishna Bhagavan, Sarvaroopi etc. u must understand that i am not in Swaminarayan sampradaya and nor are my family and my understanding of Swaminarayan has come largely from friends i have who are BAPS. It seems that the Vadtal/Ahmedabad Gadi is very similar to other Vaishnav sampradays in regard to worshiping Lord Krishna and this is clearly evident with murthies of Krishna-Radha, Lakshmi etc placed on the same Sinhasan as Swaminarayan in Mandirs. In fact have a lot of respect for Acharayas of Ahmedabad and Vadtal as they seem to be very humble and simple men. I do find the maninagar leader rather odd in that he accepts panchamurt bath which is unknown anywhere in our Hindu religion. I am not suprised that this Muktajivan das is a Ghost. So let me get thus straight, he has possesed people after his death? How do we know that it was his spirit that possesed people???? Also i wanted to ask you, what is the relationship with the Swaminarayan-Gurukul organisation and the Acharaya-Sansthas? They don't appear to preach a different philosophy to the original sanstha but many their leaders Shastriji Dharmajivandasji swami is often called 'guru'? I beleive he came from Vadtal gadi and started his Gurukul organisation. Did he leave Vadtal in the same way as Sadhu Yagnapurushdas did after a disagreement with Acharyaji or did he do it upon the 'Agna' of Acharayaji??? Final question which i am curious about regards the Murthi of Sita Rama in original Swaminarayan temples. Sahajanada swami was born near Ayhodya, the sampradaya celebrates RamaJanma utsav and worships Hanumanji, but why is it that with exception to Bhuj mandir their are no Sita-Rama murthies in the main temples. There so many other forms of God like Baldev-Revti, KrishnaRadha, LakshmiNarayan, NarNarayan, UmaMaheshwar etc...but no SitaRama? Why is this?

Jai Sita Rama I heard that the ISKCON 'guru' Bhakti Balabh Puri Goswami was found to be some fraudster. What was disturbing about this was the fact that this fraud had collected that installed so many holy Salagram Silas at scotland temple (Karuna Bhavan), so many salagrams have not even been worshiped by Swamis from Ancient lineages such as Sri, Shankara and Madhva Sampradayas. What will happen to all these Silas who have not been installed properly as the installer was actually a fraud??? Also why does ISKCON have so many Gurus?? Didnt Sri Bhakti Sidhanta say that it is a big sin to prematurely accept saffron? Would it not be better to have the soceity built on strong foundations of Grihastas? In many sampradayas a lot of Sanyasi's live as Grihastas for a while, and in the Rudra-Sampraday (Pushtimarg) all Gurus remain Grihastas. It seems that it is perfectly fine to preach and be a Guru as a Grihasta so many great devotees of the past did it. For example in Sri Sampradaya one of greatest and most influentail Acharaya's post-Ramanuja was Vedanta Desika who was married. VallabhAcharaya was instruced by Krishna to remain married and later his sons too over from him. Veda vyas, Bhakti Vinod Thakur, Vashita muni and Sandipani muni were Grihastas. And if i remember correctly His Divine Grace, mentioned that he liked ISKCON temples run by good Grihasta couples, who would be like Father and mother figures of the congregation

Jai Sita Rama By the way what is going one with the Maninagar Sanstha??? In this forum there is a lot of Vadtal/Ahemedabad sanstha vs BAPS debate. But it seems to me that Maninagar (Swaminarayan Gadi Santhsa) have really moved away from the original group. This group was spilt by a Sadhu from NaraNarayan Desh called MuktaJivan Swami (A.k.a JivanPran Bapa), similar to Shastriji who spilt from Vadtal. This sanstha trace their origins back to Gopalanand swami and have two very Random beleifs. Firstly they beleif that Swaminarayan was reborn as 'Abjibapa' in kutch. And by the way this 'Abjibapa' following is not just by the Maninagar sanstha, but is also held by another smaller sanstha based in Vasna. Secondly they beleive that Muktajivan Bapa is the physical embodiment on the 'Swaminarayan Gadi'. What i also find interesting about this group is that they have complety seemed to have forgotten about Lord Krishna who swaminarayan instructs his devotees to worship. While even BAPS temples have RadhaKrishna and LakshmiNarayan deities. The Maninagar sanstha does not install any RadhaKrishna, NaraNarayan Dev, LaksmiNarayan etc...

Jai Sita Rama, thanks you for your reply Das ka Das. I was originally attracted to swaminarayn sampradaya but when i became more attracted to the Original Sampradya. Am i talking about Baps, NaraNarayan Gadi, Vadtal??? NO im refering to the Original Srivaishnav Ramanuja sampradya who Ramand swami supposdely got diksha from. So many questions come to mind regarding this beleif that Ramand got diksha from Srimath Ramanuja acharaya. The most obvious one is about this mantra 'Sri KrishnaTvan Gatir Mamah'. No where is this taught by Ramanuja or his succers or Sampradaya. The ramanuj sampradaya has three mantra 'Ashakshar' 'Dvayam' and 'charma' none of which are the 'Sri Krishna tvam Gatir Mamah mantra. In the ramanuja sampradaya even up to today these 3 mantras are chanted. Also if Ramand wanted diksha why did he not approach many of the successors of Ramanuja in places like Kanchipuram and Srirangam??? Also if Swaminarayan sampradaya comes from Ramanujacharaya why dont Swaminarayn devotees, utter the 3 mantra sof Sri-sampraday, or chant the verses of the Alvars (divya Prabandanam) etc...which Ramanuja spent his life preaching. If Sahajanada swami was god incarnate then why didnt Sri Ramanuj swami, appear to all his successors and followes accross India and tell them to go to Gujarat and worship the 'Sarva Avatari Bhagavan'??? Also why does this philosophy of 'Akshardham' and Akshar-rup not appear in Bhagavatam, Ramanyan, Gita and other bonafide Vedic scriptures? Finally (and these question particulary goes to BAPs and Maninagar followers who think swaminarayan is higher then Krishna), what happened to all those great Vaishnavs of past like SriVallabh, SriRamanuj, Nammalvar, Madhvacharaya, who never uttered the name swaminarayan? Did they not get Moksha? When if swaminarayan is higher then Krishna then why does Krishna in the Gita unabigiously and clearly say that he is God supreme and can give salvation?

Jai Sri Krishna Is the Bhaktivedanta Ashram im Bhadrak part of ISKCON?

Jai Sita Rama I have a few questions that need answering 1) Where is the evidence that Dr Swami etc.... are fighting over succership of Sri Pramukh swami.???? And by the way who is going to be next leader of BAPS 2) Has Pramukh swami (head of baps) or PurushotamPriyadasji (Head of Maninagar Sansthan) ever met or bumped into the Acharyas? I know Pramukh swami goes for Dharshan at the old temples, but he never seems to go to Vadtal or Ahmedabad temples. 3) What mantra do the NaraNarayan/LakshmiNarayan Gadi sampradaya chant. I know the BAPS sanstha chant 'Swaminarayan' and the Maninagar sanstha chant 'swaminarayanBapa Swamibapa'????? Corrent my ignorance but the shikshapatri says that devotees should chant the 8-sylable mantra (Ashtakshar) which is either refers to SriKrishnaSharanmm or NamoNarayanaya