Prasthanatrayi Swaminarayan Bhashyam (Study)

by Sadhu Gyanananddas | 2021 | 123,778 words

This page relates ‘Savior of Gujarat’ of the study on the Prasthanatrayi Swaminarayan Bhashyam in Light of Swaminarayan Vachanamrut (Vacanamrita). His 18th-century teachings belong to Vedanta philosophy and were compiled as the Vacanamrita, revolving around the five ontological entities of Jiva, Ishvara, Maya, Aksharabrahman, and Parabrahman. Roughly 200 years later, Bhadreshdas composed a commentary (Bhasya) correlating the principles of Vachanamrut.

4.7. Savior of Gujarat

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[Full title: Bhagavān Svāminārāyaṇa and His Tradition (7): Savior of Gujarat]

While Bhagavān Svāminārāyaṇa was successfully reviving Dharma by His divinity, missionaries vied with each other in India, “hoping to bring Christian salvation to millions of “heathen” “souls.”^[1] Abbé Dubois, a French missionary, managed to convert a mere 200 to 300 beggars between 1792 and 1823. He then left for Paris disillusioned. In the early 17th century, American missionaries targeted India as the first foreign destination. In 1801, a museum in Salem jubilantly displayed a shikha shaved off a Brahmin on being converted. In 1812, American missionaries in Bombe read the scripture in Gujarati to native children. “But they never have yet made a convert,”^[2] observed William Rogers, a trader from Boston. Hence conversion in India was regarded as a great challenge. In 1822, Bishop Middleton of Calcutta died. This put the Church of England in a dilemma. However, C. W. Williams Wynn, the chairman of the Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India, had his eyes on a long acquaintance–a promising young priest named Reginald Heber. Heber, too had dreamt of working in India. Therefore, Wynn sent him a letter of appointment. Meanwhile, he has conferred Lord Bishop of Calcutta on 1st June 1823 at Lambeth Palace Church. On 16th June 1823, he left England for India.

In Baroda, Heber heard much about Svāminārāyaṇa’s success from the Company’s officers.

This induced in him an eagerness to meet Him, with the intention of :

“Inducing him to go with me to Bombe, where I hoped that by conciliatory treatment, and the conversations to which I might introduce him with the Church Missionary Society… I might do him better than I could otherwise hope to do.”^[3]

However, after meeting Him on 26th March 1825, his high aspirations crumbled;

“I thought from all which I saw that it would be to no advantage to ask him to accompany me to Bombe.”

Though unable to influence Svāminārāyaṇa, he was nonetheless highly impressed by His success; a success which he could not hope to match:

“…. But it was also apparent that he had obtained a great power over a wild people, which he used at present to a good purpose.”^[4]

Heber then left Gujarat for good. Thus, Bhagavān Svāminārāyaṇa’s presence saved Gujarat from the seeds of proselytization. His divine fragrance embellished Sanātana Dharma and solidified its foundation. For this purpose, He remains manifest eternally earth through such Satpuruṣa’s–His Guṇātīta Sādhus. The first was Akṣarabrahman Guṇātītānanda Svāmī and the sixth today is HDH Mahanta Svāmī Mahārāja.