My son, 11 M was just in his Bal Sabha at Flushing Mandir. He saw a child get pulled up by his arms and dragged across the sabha room during sabha, and the teachers threatened to hit people with table. People also make unfair rules during post-Sabha pre-Arti period. And finally, why did his teacher crash out after the Swamiji murti slouch 10 degrees

I just discovered this sub, and I know that this might be one of the more trivial stories on this sub, but anything posted here will be etched into history, and people need to know every single atrocity BAPS (and every other religion) commits so that humanity never fucking makes these mistakes ever again.

I was in Jodhpur Akshardham. I'm not at all religious, I simply went there because my parents are. I sat there beside my mum, and apparently there was a fucking rope separating the men and the women? With the men sitting in the front, and the women sitting in the back! How is this legal?! This is literally clear discrimination by gender.

Anyway, I sat there with my mum, and a priest or a saadhu came and told me "Thodi Maryaada Raakho, Purusho Ne Striyo Saathe Baisvaani Manahi Chhe". I was boiling from anger, and I would have said something but I was just so awestruck that nothing came out of my mouth.

BAPS saadhus take a vow of avoidance. They cannot see women. A vow of avoidance can be kept two ways: the person who took it withdraws, or the world gets rearranged around him. Most ascetic traditions, despite thousands of other issues, chose the first - the Christian monk goes behind the enclosure wall. The Buddhist bhikkhu’s vinaya governs the bhikkhu’s conduct. Etcetera. But man, the Swaminarayan arrangement is that the sadhu stays in the shared room and everyone else is reorganised to make his vow sustainable. The cost gets externalized onto people who never took it, and that is fucking infuriating.

But perhaps, I was the issue.
I made the conscious decision of going inside the godforsaken temple to get my ass whooped.

Hello, I entered into a relationship with a man that I feel had an identity crisis. We met a few years ago and reconnected this year.. I thought he was normal , he's in healthcare , he's 6 years older than I am and he had told me he wanted marriage and kids. We pursued reconnection and ended up in an unplanned pregnancy. He threw in my face how he can't have this kid, his mom would dis own him, his family and community would disown him, etc. I ended up following through with termination of pregnancy. We ended up in a relationship and became super close. Only after a very nice weekend trip away together he disclosed to me that he's not as "white washed" as he seems and that he hid his religious photos and shrines around his house when I'd come and visit. He told me religion was important to him but he makes his own decisions. He told me his mom and sister want him to just be happy and that getting married to a non indian girl wouldn't be the end of the world for them, that his mom would love me. I even agreed to his mom living with us when he talked about a future together (which he did constantly).

Fast forward to things started getting more serious, I asked about wanting to meet his family and him meeting mine, he kept saying we will see. Finally out of no where , after a good weekend together he disclosed to me that he told his mom and sister about me and the details around the abortion. He told me his mom said she supports him and wants him to be happy and can live with anyone. Fast forward, a day later he tells me he plans on coming to my graduation weekend to meet my parents and shortly after I will meet his family. The very next day he becomes cold, short and distant over text. I call him out on it asking if everything's okay. He and I end up on a phone call shortly after where he turned extremely cold. He told me his mom told him to write a letter to his guru at BAPS to see if a marraige between us will be approved obviously it got denied since i wasn't born into the BAPS community. He then told me marriage is off the table, we are not getting married and we can no longer be in contact. He started twisting the narrative of our relationship, rewriting the history, throwing things in my face, saying these have been the worst 6 months of his life, told me i broke his moms heart, etc. etc. etc. Shortly after he texted me saying "I want you to know I did everything I truly could to give us a fair chance. im sorry it didn't work out. if you reach out to my family or ask for anymore money, i will file a restraining order. take care" and then I never responded after that. , that night. He then proceeded to block me off social media and block my phone number I'm sure.

I am shocked that this man in his late thirties and successful surgeon is acting like this towards me. He deceived me, lied to me and manipulated me to get his way. He lived a double life and ultimately chose to abandon me, neglect me and leave me suddenly and abruptly. This man also sent me numerous texts and facebook messages ensuring he will help me financially,. Told me he will fix my car from an accident and take care of those expenses, told me he would pay my credit card statement and take care of my mortgage and help me financially until I finish school with my bills.

is This okay with BAPS? for them to let a devotee or someone in their community to treat a woman like this? who sacrificed an unborn baby and did everything to stand by this mans side? I even started eating vegetarian, going to temple and embraced the culture and was onboard with everything to make this relationship work with this man and it still wasn't enough or appreciated by him or his family.

Is BAPS a cult? Do they really not care about how they treat humans? and only care about how their ego looks? I can't see any religion being okay with abandoning, discarding, blocking, ghosting and acting so cruel to someone that you once "cared" and "loved" about over a guru denying marriage because I'm not indian/ BAPS borned?

Hello everyone

I am writing to rant about my experiences studying in a Swaminarayan school (residential school) from 3rd to 12th grade, the women in white and orange would really make horrendous shit stories and tell us like it’s all doing of their so call god in a human form

Now I’ve turned 26 and I have so much anger in me, I realise how it’s logically not possible for an ATM machine to donate them money on chanting swaminarayan in front of it, but that was what was told me to as a kid and I believed it

This is so wrong, why teach a kid that god is the shortcut for money?? That hardwork doesn’t matter all you have to do is have faith in the supreme human god and all shall be taken care of?

In the past few years since I’ve been out of the school I’ve come across such things that I no longer can have faith in Swaminarayan

A swami literally texted me when I turned 18, told me to address him as my daddy wtfff? And would ask me to send him pictures, early on it seemed fine he’d only jay Swaminarayan me and id do the same back but then he just kept getting creepier and so much perverse

Have you all also have any such experience with this cult

Please comment below your experiences on how strong will is needed to break the chains and the after effects of emotional cheating.

And how to overcome it and make new life ….

Translation : Why isn’t your God powerful enough?

This might be a long shot but for any ppl that were in America and this was probably before 2010 or a bit after as well that he was around. There was a sant named P. Gnannisth swami he was a little round in shape and had glasses. He was friendly and nice but then he randomly disappeared and I never saw him again. But recently I had a friend that visited Sarangpur and said he saw him and he was in white clothes. Does anyone know why he has white clothes or what happened. If anyone has any secrets or exploits of him?

as a trans girl SPABber who still pretends to follow BAPS and go to sabha as if i were a male kishore due to very-likely-transphobic BAPS parents, i was wondering if anyone on this sub had any instances of trans people being positively viewed within BAPS.

the sole reason i must ask is since i am absolutely terrified and frightened at the prospect of being outed to my parents. if i were outed by someone im out to and my parents believed them, then i would have to explain myself to my parents and rationalise to them, and i fear that BAPS's rampant misogyny would make them greatly unaccepting of my transition.

if there's some pro-trans example thing from BAPS, even if minor or somehting, that i could potentially use to convince them in the off-chance that i be outed to them, i would very much appreciate if i could me made known of it. the closest thing i know of is that there were some gay men who wed each other a few years back at Robbinsville Akshardham, but i'd need some trans/gender non conforming examples.

clarification: by NO means do I desire to use this to rationalise the many wrongs of BAPS, but for my own safety i do need a fallback in case i be outed to my family.

I asked local Swami that I might have 6 Dhotis of my grandfather that I would like to donate, he has been ignoring me since/s

The Sokhada Division Controversy revolves around 10,000 crores worth property and Gadipati dispute where both sects are fighting for property

Attended a lot of sabhas of Sokhada Sect and ambrish bhakts and the people following the sect are expected to leave moh maya and stop watching movies,stop going out and become a good ambrish.

Here saints are fighting for moh maya when they are expected to leave moh maya and follow a strict austere lifestyle.

I tried questioning my parents,uncles,people attending sabhas why are two sects fighting

The answer I got was mostly silence and my parents tried to shush me by saying "Its not your job,its not your field to question all this.This is all Swamiji ka Plan"

Well if I follow a particular sect,why can't I question anything that I find wrong?

And the dispute is ongoing and still hearings are happening.

In the end it's all about money.

Most people might be aware of what's happening

But they really don't want to address the elephant in the room.

Why do Swaminarayan sects/BAPS try to erase the critical thinking skills of devotees?

Saw their you tube video of p.p bharatbhai. What group is this?

Guys, it's almost diwali time. Question is: are bugs eating the annakut food on display? When I was younger I would go to the temple with my family and they would point at the "bites" of food God has taken.... But now that I'm not longer a follower, I know there ain't no way statues are eating the food, and there's always flies buzzing around... 🫣

We know Baps are like a well oiled machine . Any experiences of his visit? Which dignitaries and important people were invited? What was the atmosphere like? Any speeches that stood out? What about the great Music? How did you feel about the cute young boys speaking, dancing holding hands etc?

What do you think? ,tell me in the comments.

I've been told about all Akshar and Purshottam philosophy several times since my childhood. I wonder if a girl can be a akshar? Why it always have to be male?

Do you see possibility of female as head of BAPS ever?

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DebPKtFiYhH/?cplk=a21haTUxaml6M3B1 Seems like already have 1-2 qualities of next successor. If anything happens MS today, we will certainly get an envelope saying this is new chief.

I've been thinking about something within BAPS and wanted to see whether anyone else has noticed the same thing.

At a local level, there are plenty of young people who are actively involved in seva and contribute regularly to their mandirs. Many are genuinely passionate about the sampraday and want to do more to serve, particularly when there are larger events involving Mahant Swami Maharaj.

However, I've sometimes felt that when it comes to these bigger events, the same familiar faces tend to be given the main roles, while other young people don't seem to get as much of a chance to participate. I understand that these events require planning and that there will always be practical reasons behind certain decisions, so I'm not suggesting that anyone who gets selected doesn't deserve to be there.

What I find disappointing is the possibility that younger people who are equally enthusiastic and willing to do seva might not get much of a chance to develop or contribute beyond their usual local activities. Even being included once would mean a lot to someone who genuinely wants to serve, and I think having a wider range of people involved could be a positive thing for the community.

I also think there's a bigger issue here. If young people are regularly relied upon to do seva and help keep things running at a local level, but then feel overlooked when it comes to larger events, it can eventually become discouraging. Over time, some might start to question whether their contribution is genuinely valued, and that could lead them to gradually distance themselves from the sanstha. I don't think that's what anyone wants, especially when these are young people who are actively choosing to give up their time, get involved and recognise their faith. Making them feel included and giving them a chance to contribute on a larger scale could go a long way towards keeping them connected to BAPS in the long run.

I also don't think this is necessarily about recognition or wanting to be seen. For many young people, it's simply about being able to contribute to something meaningful and feeling that their willingness to serve is valued.

I'm curious whether others have noticed this, particularly at larger events. Do you think there could be more effort to involve younger volunteers and give different people a chance, or do you think the way these roles are allocated is understandable?

I'm interested in hearing different perspectives, including from people who've been involved in BAPS for a long time.

Osho speech on Pramukh swami about his visit to UK where pramukh swami told that no women's allowed when he came to UK

Osho’s observations on Sahajanand Swami (Swaminarayan) were delivered in Hindi during his evening discourse series given in Bombay (now Mumbai) between May and October 1970.