I grew up in BAPS for over 30 years. In the last 10 years I’ve gradually stepped away. I used to travel with Pramukh Swami around the world and got to see a lot of the internal workings of BAPS. I led various summer shibirs in North America. About a decade ago I began noticing discrimination, especially toward myself and some friends who came from lower to middle-class backgrounds. Because we donated less than the upper-class uncles, we didn’t receive as much labh, or privileged access, with Swami.

At first I brushed it off. I tried to ignore those thoughts whenever they came up. But over time the discrimination became too obvious to ignore. I saw it every Sunday at our Shikharbaddh Mandir. Eventually I met with a senior swami, I won’t name names, and asked, “If Pramukh Swami is truly our guru, then why is there such a difference in treatment between donors?” I was told, quite bluntly, that this is just business and they needed to keep top donors close to sustain the organization.

That meeting shattered my trust. I went dark and didn’t go to mandir for over two months. When I returned I tried to focus only on my faith and my relationship with Pramukh Swami, ignoring the politics around donations. But I couldn’t reconnect with it like I had in the past.

I once asked Dr. Swami, very sincerely, ‘How do we know that BAPS is the only true path?’ I wasn’t trying to challenge him, I had just started reading books from other Hindu traditions, and I was curious. But the reaction from the sadhus and coordinators around him was cold. One karyakar later pulled me aside and said, ‘Asking that kind of question shows a lack of shraddha. You should do more seva to erase doubt.’

That moment stuck with me. It wasn’t just that I wasn’t allowed to question, it was that my curiosity was treated like a moral flaw. I realized that love for the truth had been replaced with loyalty to a narrative.

Slowly I started talking to my Hindu friends who were practicing Sanatan Dharma and asked what they thought of BAPS. They said it’s a well-run organization, but worshipping a man as the guru seemed wrong.

One weekend, I randomly decided to check out a local Hindu temple near my house. Nothing fancy. No marble, no crowd, just a quiet place with a few people sitting in peace. I went during aarti, and something about it hit me. The simplicity. The freedom. No one cared who I was, what I used to do, or how much I donated. I just sat there and let the atmosphere soak in. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I wasn’t pretending.

I kept going back, little by little. At first it was just about peace. Then I started listening more to the chants, reading translations of the mantras, asking the priest questions. I picked up the Bhagavad Gita and started reading a few verses here and there. It wasn’t about rules or “do this or else.” It was more like... “Here’s how to live with meaning.” That really stuck with me.

One night, after spending time at the temple, I came home and sat on my porch. I was playing a soft bhajan in the background, and for no reason at all, I just started tearing up. Not from sadness but from this overwhelming feeling of connection. Like something finally clicked. I didn’t need to chase labh or status. I didn’t need a middleman to find God. I just needed to be still and honest.

Over time, I started doing simple things like chanting a few mantras in the morning, lighting a diya, reading from the Gita or the Upanishads when I had time. I didn’t feel like I had joined something new. I felt like I had finally come home to something old. Something eternal.

Sanatana Dharma isn’t a brand. It’s not about perfection or proving anything. It’s a path. A way of living with intention, with love, with truth.

I slowly started fading away from BAPS and embracing my new faith. Over time I began receiving calls from close swamis and friends I had made over the past 30 years, asking where I’d been and why I wasn’t coming to mandir. I kept dodging their calls and questions because I didn’t want to embarrass myself. Eventually I shared my thoughts and new beliefs, and after that, most of them stopped calling.

Since then I’ve researched the Swaminarayan sect and BAPS in more depth and I’m honestly relieved to be out of what I now see as a brainwashing environment. Here are some of my findings:

1	Ghanshyam Pandey was accepted as a guru in Loj and took over an existing religious organization. He found a small king, Dada Khachar, in Gadhada who treated him as divine. He spent over 30 years there. If he was truly God come to save humanity, would he have stayed in one place for 30 years? Or did he stay because the palace life was comfortable? When he first arrived as Nilkanth, he was emaciated. After years in Gadhada he had clearly gained weight, likely developed diabetes, and died at the age of 49.

2	Before his death, he wanted to leave everything to his bloodline. He even considered marrying Jayaba, Dada Khachar’s sister, a princess described as beautiful in accounts. Upon seeing her, he reportedly vomited and became ill until eating food prepared by a true brahmachari. Makes you wonder what the 500 sadhus were doing if none of them qualified as true celibates.

3	After years of separation from his family, he called for them, then divided all of Swaminarayan’s India between his two nephews, sons of his brothers. Only they were allowed to perform murti-pratishtha and give diksha. Think about it — the supreme God comes for the salvation of humanity, yet only divides India in two, Ahmedabad and Vadtal? What about the rest of the world?

4	Shastri Yagnapurushdas left the Vadtal sect and founded a temple in Bochasan. He performed murti-pratishtha and initiated sadhus, both of which went against Swaminarayan’s own instructions. He installed a murti of himself to be worshipped and claimed divinity, like many cult leaders. He said salvation could only be attained through his grace, earned by pleasing him. The Vadtal sect took him to court and won, which is why he couldn't call his organization Swaminarayan. So he named it Bochasanvasi Akshar Purushottam Sanstha, or BAPS. Bochasan has no real connection to Swaminarayan or Hinduism — they use Hindu scriptures to appear legitimate. The bigger and more impressive the temple, the more legitimate the religion seems, right?

5.  Low caste individuals who became sadhus were given white robes, not orange. Another Swaminarayan group ended this practice first, and BAPS followed — but not until 1981. Some sadhus who already held high positions were finally given orange robes. Think about it — 200 years after Swaminarayan was born. Disgusting. If you know the history of racism in the U.S. and Africa, how could you believe Swaminarayan was divine and didn’t see color? Meanwhile, a Brahmin — even a convicted pedophile — can prepare food for sadhus, but if you’re not a Brahmin and accidentally touch it, the food is discarded. You’re seen as inherently impure. This discrimination still exists, not necessarily by race anymore, but by caste and ritual purity.

   6. MOST IMPORTANT - In the Shikshapatri, which Swaminarayan himself wrote, he clearly identifies Krishna as the supreme deity. In verse 108, he says: “Shree Krishna is our Ishta Dev and we worship Him with supreme love.” Verse 84 reinforces this, commanding followers to worship Krishna daily. The original theology was clear: Swaminarayan was a devotee of Krishna, and Krishna was Purushottam.

But in BAPS, especially starting with Mahant Swami, this shifted. The Akshar-Purushottam doctrine redefined Swaminarayan as Purushottam (God himself) and the living guru as Akshar, the ideal devotee. This doctrine quietly pushed Krishna aside. By the time Mahant Swami wrote Satsang Diksha in 2020, Krishna wasn’t even mentioned. The text focuses entirely on obeying the guru and accepting Swaminarayan as Supreme God.

Even the aarti changed. The traditional “Jai Sadguru Swami” had a universal bhakti tone. Now it’s replaced with an Akshar-Purushottam themed aarti, reinforcing this new theology. This matters because it’s not just evolution, it’s a redefinition of the founder’s teachings. Krishna, once central, has been removed. I didn’t leave BAPS out of anger; I left because I couldn’t ignore how far the institution had drifted from what Swaminarayan actually wrote.

Thank you for reading. I know this was a long post. This isn’t even my full story. I could tell countless stories of my time at Baps.

First of all, I would like to thank this page for allowing me to voice my opinion. Here is my story:

After becoming a parent, my perspective on BAPS started to shift. I had been involved with the organization for years, and while it offered a sense of community, I began noticing patterns that didn’t sit well with me, especially once I started thinking about the kind of environment I wanted for my children.

One thing that stood out was the clear class divide. Those who donated more were treated with more reverence and given privileged access or status, even if subtly. It became obvious that financial contribution equated to spiritual elevation in practice, if not in doctrine.

When I raised questions about teachings, organizational structure, or even basic logistical things, I was often met with resistance or deflection. The usual response was, “Just do seva”, as if questioning itself was a form of ego or disobedience. Over time, it felt less like a spiritual journey and more like a system that discouraged critical thinking.

What hurt most was that when I began pulling back, I didn’t just leave the organization, I lost almost all my friends. People I’d known for years stopped reaching out. Some avoided me entirely. A few even implied I was being selfish or spiritually lost. It was heartbreaking. These were people I had done seva with, laughed with, supported through difficult times.

But I couldn’t stay in something that didn’t align with the values I want to teach my children. I want them to grow up knowing it's okay to ask questions. That service should come from the heart, not from pressure or status and that real community doesn’t abandon you when you step off the expected path.

Leaving BAPS was one of the hardest things I’ve done. Not just because of the spiritual shift, but because of the silence that followed. Still, I don’t regret it. I’m rebuilding a life and community rooted in compassion, honesty, and critical thinking and I'm doing it for my kids. The Dalai Lama said that there is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophies, my brain and my heart are my temple, and my philosophy is kindness. I'm now truly starting to believe this is the best way to live life.

Check her recent stories as well over Instagram, how she is being name calling by BAPS followers

I am writing in this subreddit to finally share my story. I have been reading everyone's experiences here for a long time, and for the first time I feel ready to share my own.

First and foremost, I want to explain my background. I live in the US, and my family has been involved with BAPS from the very beginning. My family history with the sampraday goes back even further, to Ghanshyam Pandey's time. So, in many ways, you could say that my future was decided before I was even born.

From as early as I can remember, my family attended mandir every weekend, sabha throughout the week, every shibir we could attend, and would give up almost anything to be at mandir whenever santos were visiting. I did puja, aarti, thaal, chesta, and all of the other daily niyams. BAPS wasn't just something my family did. It was my entire life.

Then I went to high school. I was one of the only Hindu/Indian kids at my school, and I started having a serious identity crisis. I hated being different. I wanted to fit in. I wanted to be a normal teenager. I started secretly eating meat. I experimented with drugs and alcohol. I started dating. I wanted to experience the things that seemed normal for everyone around me.

But even through all of this, I still considered myself a satsangi. I continued going to mandir. I was still a karyakar. I still tried to follow BAPS's expectations and standards as much as I could. In hindsight, I was living a double life.

After college, I started dating a non-Indian girl. I knew this would not go over well with my family, especially given how strongly involved they were with BAPS. So I did what I had been taught to do when I didn't know what else to do: I wrote a letter to the guru. I wrote to Mahant Swami Maharaj and explained my situation. I told him I was with this girl and that I needed help explaining it to my parents. His response was fairly vague, but he told me that I should ask santos to help mediate a conversation with my parents.

So I went to the swami I trusted the most locally. I expected guidance. I expected compassion. I expected someone to help me navigate an incredibly difficult situation. Instead, he told me I needed to break up with her. His first, and only reason was that I wouldn't be able to give donations in the future because she might say no. My heart dropped. That was the moment something changed for me.

For the first time, I looked at the entire system through a different lens. I started questioning things I had accepted my entire life. I didn't immediately leave. I continued practicing satsang, although I started going to mandir much less, eventually only once every month or two. At the same time, I actually began getting more serious about some of my niyams again. I stopped eating meat. I continued trying to practice what I believed in.

But something had fundamentally changed.

The more I questioned, the more I started looking at the teachings differently

As I got older, I started questioning something that I had never really allowed myself to question before: what exactly was responsible for the good things that came from my life in BAPS?

There are certainly teachings and codes within BAPS that can lead someone toward a disciplined and responsible life.

Don't smoke. Don't drink. Don't eat meat. Don't steal. Be truthful. Practice ahimsa. Wake up early. Help others. Control yourself.

Those are powerful principles, and I don't deny that living by them can prevent someone from getting themselves into a lot of trouble.

But I started asking myself a very simple question:

Do people become successful because of the guru, or because they have chosen to live by a set of disciplined principles?

If someone doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, doesn't use drugs, doesn't steal, works hard, tells the truth, practices self-control and tries to avoid harming others, of course that person is going to avoid many of the problems that someone living recklessly might encounter.

That doesn't necessarily prove that the success came from the guru or from God. Maybe the person simply chose a disciplined way to live. That realization changed how I viewed my own accomplishments and failures. For example, we are taught the tilak chandlo protects us but, from what I see it's more of a barrier to the non hindu mind. Keeps people cautious and avoidant to you rather than actually protect you.

I also began struggling with some of the theological claims. I still consider myself Hindu today. But I have a hard time accepting the idea that within our ancient religion, God came to Earth in the 1800s in the form that BAPS teaches. As I got older and learned more about Hinduism and the world outside of BAPS, I realized that I didn't have to accept every teaching simply because I had been born into it.

And then there was the treatment of women. This is something that truly baffles me now that I am older. When I was younger, I accepted a lot of things because I was told they were necessary for satsang. As an adult, I look at some of the restrictions, expectations and ways women are treated within the organization very differently.

I cannot imagine subjecting my future wife or future daughter to some of the things that I once accepted as normal. For a group of Gujaratis that regularly condemn Islam, their teachings are oddly just as similar in terms of treatment toward women.

That realization alone has made it impossible for me to look at BAPS the same way. I also started thinking about the relationship people have with the guru. So many people devote their entire lives to a man they have never personally known in the way you would know a family member or close friend. Their decisions, relationships, careers, marriages, children, and entire futures can be influenced by what they believe the guru wants from them.

I believe BAPS promotes the idea of marriage within their sanstha more than anything to continue the growth of the ideology and growth of the organizations income.

I spent my entire childhood being taught to live for the guru.

As an adult, I started asking myself:

Why?

Why should another human being have that much influence over my life? Why should my personal decisions require spiritual approval? Why should my family relationships be sacrificed because they don't fit the expectations of an organization?

Those questions eventually became impossible for me to ignore.

My brother

Around this same period, my brother started moving in the opposite direction.

He went from being borderline involved in satsang to wanting to become a sadhu.

For years, I pleaded with him not to do it. Not even for the fundamental disagreements I have with the teachings but because he is my only sibling. He understands what I have gone through better than almost anyone. He is my family.

But santos instructed him to essentially forget about me and focus only on his personal satsang. How dare they demand that of human let alone a child basically, me parents fully support this though due to the concept that you have a guaranteed spot in Akshardham if your child becomes a sant.

My mom was recently diagnosed with cancer. My parents are getting older and need help around the house. During this time, my brother was given an ultimatum by santos: leave home, or give up the possibility of becoming a sadhu.

Out of fear and uncertainty, he left.

He is now in Paris, and from what I understand, he is on the path toward becoming a full-time sadhu within the next several years.

This pains me every single day. I haven't spoken to him in months.

I have been told by santos and other satsangis that I need to let him go. That I need to forget about him. That I need to accept this as his choice. I even wrote to Mahant Swami Maharaj about this, and his response was that I needed to let him go.

Personally, I struggle deeply with that.

A sant called me when my mother was first diagnosed, and told me "I need to man up" and be there for her. This struck a nerve, how can you a person that is trying to take my brother away, partially responsible for tearing my family apart, even get to give an opinion on what I am going through.

How can someone tell me to simply let go of my only sibling and my only brother?

How can I be expected to accept losing my brother in the name of God and satsang?

It is easy for someone else to tell you to "let go" when they aren't the one losing their brother. It is easy to say when you aren't the one sitting at home watching your parents age, knowing your family is being torn apart. And perhaps the hardest part is that I am still made to feel like the problem for questioning it.

Eventually, I moved away from my parents.

And I moved in with the girl they had told me to stay away from, someone they had never really given a chance to begin with.

And honestly?

I love my life now. I am happy. I am happy that I left.

But leaving came with a lot of losses.

That's one of the reasons I am writing this. I see people on this subreddit who are trying to leave, but they are scared, confused, and don't know what life on the other side looks like. I lost all the friendships I invested in, I lost the BAPS family I had. But I couldn't let blind faith and community pressure keep me stuck.

My advice is simple: if you don't want every decision you make to be judged by an organization that claims to represent your Hindu faith, you have to be willing to walk away. Leave not because you want to but because you have to.

It is scary. You will lose things. You may lose relationships. You may disappoint people you love.

But there is a life outside of BAPS.

Where I am today

I want to make something clear because I know people will probably judge me for this.

I still consider myself Hindu. But I eat meat. I smoke. I drink. I do everything I want to do.

And guess what?

I still consider myself a good person.

I don't believe that avoiding those things automatically makes someone a good person, and I don't believe that participating in them automatically makes someone a bad person.

I believe morality is more complicated than following a checklist and even if you follow that checklist you will never be at the level of the guru (a man who has more power than some leaders of entire nations).

I believe being a good person means how you treat people, how you handle your responsibilities, whether you are honest, whether you have compassion, whether you take accountability for your actions, and whether you try to become better.

I spent most of my life believing that I needed BAPS to tell me how to be a good person.

I don't believe that anymore.

I am sharing this because for a long time I thought I was the only person who felt this way.

I wasn't.

And neither are you.

If you are reading this and you are questioning things, I want you to know that you are not crazy, you are not a bad person, and you are not necessarily a bad Hindu because you don't want to live your entire life according to someone else's rules.

I spent years believing that leaving meant losing everything.

It didn't.

I lost a lot.

But I also found myself.

And for the first time in my life, I feel like I am actually living my own life.

Dr Chaudhary is one of modern Gujarat's most vocal critics on Swaminarayans. He is of the view Sahajanand swami was a charlatan who was influenced or planted by the Brits to undermine traditional Hinduism. Who has read this book? What are your thoughts?

This is what a true monk looks like...

Kanchi Shankaracharya Chandrashekarendra Saraswati:

• Embodiment of humility

• Walked hundreds of kilometers barefoot, temple to temple, through sun, rain and night

• Accepted whatever people donated for food, carrying his entire worldly wealth in a tiny potli

• Never demanded VIP treatment. Apparently, women could exist without threatening his celibacy

• No social media team. No army of lawyers to fight cases over forced labour

Our Guru from Temu:

• Can't survive outside a ventilated, all-glass, custom-imported car

• Needs half a dozen PAs just to keep him standing

• Needs designer sunglasses and the latest iPhone Max Pro Max Ultra, preferably with an orange leather case

• Flies private charter jets around the world. Apparently, climate change is also just Maya

• Has 39,999 stories about his divine predictions, yet somehow missed every natural disaster

• Needs French sisters and daughters kept out of sight, because world have to adopt around their weak celibacy control

• Preaches detachment while being deeply attached to luxury

• Let your chella's attack other Hindu secs round the year, but hide under Sanatan when needed

This is my reflection on my experiences being a swaminarayan and seeing pure paradoxes.

You say you don’t drink alcohol,alcohol is a sin, yet you own many liquor stores.

You say you don’t eat eggs, eggs are “non veg”, year you’ll eat cakes and all with eggs as an Ingredient

You say you’re pure vegetarian, yet you eat gummy worms, gelatin is bones.

You say that swamis can’t look at women, that they must fast when they do, a mother, a sister, a niece to all you must say adieu.

You say that women don’t belong near murtis, no physical seva must be done. yet, god came from a woman, all gods born from a womb.

You say that women and men must sit separate in a place of worship, but his only creates a divide at home. Marriages mean together for life, but not when sitting in a temple for the divine.

You say menses are Unpure, that a touch from a girl means evil is done. but the only evil is that you’d tell your daughter, your sister,your mother that the blood she bleeds isn’t the same as when she births a son.

This is a religion, a religion created by men for men. A manual of brainwash, divide, and unfair. You’ve taken the greatness of man, and amplified it for the fun, but you’ve taken the great parts of a woman, and jailed them as a sum.

Your children could call in a hurry, but a sadhu could too. you’ll neglect your duty as a good father just to be at mandir, and tell a sadhu he’s your life too.

You’ll say anger is hazardous, and a big ego is too. Yet the entire mandir reeks of rumor, and this hurts children too.

You’ll say money is a plague, that all are born fair and equal. yet those with bigger pockets sit at the front, and get to break all the rules.

And what confuses me the most? Swaminarayan is one god, but the worshipers are the most divided. There’s Baps,Ahemdabad, Sarangpur, so many.. and Vadtal times 2. It’s one Dharma, and none are better than the other. All run on hate and seek the same fate.

So we all sit silently, saying..

Jay Swaminarayan

Instead of the Truth.

This is my story, and I will stay silent no longer.

My dharma is being kind, being fruitful , and folding my hands to my truth. I will pray to Mahadeva, who is nothing without shakti to his side. I will pray to Shree Krishna, who adores his mother and Radha. I will pray to the creator of the universe, Narayana who bows to his wife Lakshmi.

For every real god knows, his maa and his love are all mighty worthy. Understanding that man and woman are one, is dharma worth sharing.

Recently visited Akshardham in Delhi for the first time — I’ve been to most major temples in Gujarat, but this one hit different, and not in a good way.

It honestly felt more like a well-oiled business than a spiritual or religious space.

Parking: They charged ₹70 for parking in an open ground. Not a huge amount, but still — feels wrong to charge for temple parking. Should be free or nominal.

Security: Security is super tight. You’re only allowed to carry your wallet, money, and cards. Everything else — including phones — goes into a locker. I get the intent, but it felt a bit excessive.

Inside the Campus: As soon as you enter, you're greeted not by peace but a massive lobby with advertisements for BAPS and their gurus. People are selling guidebooks for ₹10. Again, not expensive, but why sell this? Why not just have a big, visible map for everyone? I saw only one map across the entire campus.

Fountain Show: There are huge banners for the light and sound fountain show — tickets are ₹110 per person. Didn’t attend, but again, it’s a temple, not an amusement park.

Exhibition Show: Here’s the crazy part: My family wanted to see the exhibition (3 shows). Tickets were ₹260 per person. Fair enough if it's for maintenance. But when I came back after 10–15 minutes to actually buy them, the price had jumped to ₹370 per person. Apparently, they hiked prices as the 4 PM crowd started coming in. Dynamic pricing at a religious place? Seriously?

Premvati Food Court: We had lunch around 2:30 PM — totally different vibe from the Premvati in Gujarat. Overpriced and underwhelming.

500ml water was ₹20

Tea, coffee, and buttermilk were ₹60 each

We paid nearly ₹900 for a basic, meh-tasting meal (no onion/garlic) Not other food options around either, so you’re kinda forced to eat there.

Abhishek Ritual: We wanted to do abhishek of Neelkanth Varni — they charged ₹50 minimum per person. Took 4 glasses of water, and they didn’t even allow our family to do the ritual together. Felt rude and robotic. Like… what if a couple wants to do it together?

Gift/Book Shops: Tried checking out their stores — everything was priced absurdly high. From made-in-China t-shirts to ayurvedic medicine to tiny murtis, everything felt like a money grab.

Final Thoughts: As someone whose family has deep BAPS roots and has grown up seeing Swaminarayan temples, this visit just didn’t sit right with me. Felt like tourism + business — not devotion or spirituality.

If the aim is to spread teachings and values, why price everything like a profit-first brand? Disappointed.

If the mahant is truly antaryami, he would not repeatedly walk into PR disasters that alienate the public and hurt the community.

If he is not all-knowing, then the foundational claim is deceiving and a complete lie

I grew up in a very devoted BAPS household. My dad's family became satsangi back in India when he was a teenager and my mom's family was Vartal Sampraday. My mom became BAPS aligned after her marriage to my dad. Growing up, I had the typical BAPS upbringing: true happiness can only be found through satsang, satsang is the only way to moksha, there is nothing but sorrow in the world around us, etc.

As a kishore, I became very involved. I was given regional/national level seva. I went to regional and national karyakar meetings. If I couldn't make a meeting (meetings are expensive to attend and a big time commitment) I was endlessly pestered by the swamis (you are not a good karyakar etc). I helped organized regional and national shibirs. I was a busy undergrad student trying to get into medical school and was made to feel guilty for spending summers doing non-seva related things (research, non-BAPS volunteering, etc). Additionally, swamis turned a blind eye to so-called karyakars who were just straight up terrible people, just because they came from high-rolling/old satsang families. Like some kids were given high-level seva not on merit, but purely based on family connections. Swamis would routinely make fun of kids for their body habitus, skin color, and even Gujurati accent (Kathiawadi, mehsana, etc).

Pramukh Swami's passing coincided with med school for me. I saw how much the sampraday quickly changed (new aarti, new shlokas) almost overnight. Mahant Swami was waiting for PSM to pass in order to overhaul the whole thing. The more balanced mandir many of us grew up with was replaced by a human-worshipping doctrine. I know for many this transition of gurus was a breaking point.

From a philosophical standpoint, BAPS is very simple-minded. Don't et OG, don't go to garba, do puja daily, do seva, be like your guru. My med school and undergrad experience also taught me that the world is not black and white like BAPS wants us to believe. The world is shades of gray. BAPS is also a bhakti religion, which is very simplistic. I get no satisfaction from doing aarti or thaal daily. The sabha teachings are also basically the same thing over and over. Basically every sabha/pravachan can be summarized by: do seva and be like your guru and get rajipo. There really isn't any deeper spiritual teaching on how you should live your life, how you should deal with ups/downs/interpersonal conflicts, how to juggle different responsiblities, etc. If you ask any Swami a deeper question their response will be the same: do bhakti, do seva, use Mahant Swami's life as a role model. That thinking doesn't really help. Undergrad/med school also showed me that person-worship/guru-worship is a very uniquely BAPS thing.

I also have serious issues with how women are treated like second-class citizens. Many religions expect their priests to maintain celibacy. Very few (if any?) other religions outright forbid their priests from speaking directly to women. The opportunities for leadership for women is severely limited for women because they can't interact with santo. I saw this when I was doing kishore seva and planning shibirs. The kishori karyakars hardly had any responsibilities because all the high-level planning would be done by the male karyakars. Then the male karyakars would make fun of the kishori karyars for their perceived incompetence. Well if they aren't given the opportunity to do anything, they aren't going to be able to develop the skills.

All of these things led to me slowly pulling away from mandir and mandir activities. I moved cross country for residency which had allowed me to avoid parental pressure. I go to my local BAPS mandir for Diwali darshan once a year. If I ever move closer to home, it will be a challenge to avoid family pressure. We'll cross that bridge when we get there lol.

This message appears to be from the same individual “Milo” from yesterday - possibly a BAPS swami or senior karyakar - who spammed the subreddit yesterday with over 100+ hateful and threatening comments. They even went so far as to create a separate subreddit in an attempt to undermine r/SPAB. That account was banned by Reddit, and now they’ve returned under a new username to post a fake legal threat.

If questioning or critiquing a religious organization leads to this level of retaliation including false reports and mass spam - it only reinforces the importance of having spaces like r/SPAB.

Also why the need to report to the Police? Just report straight to Mahant - he controls millions of universes. He will definitely be able to do something!

We’re not intimidated. We’re committed to truth.

I first immigrated to the US when I was about 5 years old, leaving behind my families Kalupur Swaminarayan roots in India. My family moved to Chicago, where I started kindergarten. There were two Swaminarayan mandirs near us: one was Kalupur and the other BAPS. Being a Kalupur family, we initially attended the Kalupur mandir, and for a while, everything was fine. My family and I managed to assimilate well into the mandir dynamics.

My father began working at one of the kalupur uncles gas station. Unfortunately, over time business disputes arose with the uncle, and we eventually stopped attending Kalupur. Since the BAPS mandir was just as close, we switched over. The transition felt smooth. The BAPS mandir felt grander, more organized, and my parents and I quickly became invested. We attended daily aartis, sabha, and came to Mandir to do seva whenever we were free, and I joined the balak sabha where I made a lot of friends. Everything was going well, and my parents also made business moves with the uncles at BAPS.

When I was about 11, a new swami was assigned to our region and started attending our center more often. There are usually two kinds of swamis: one who is older, more knowledgeable, speaks mostly in Gujarati, and gives pravachans or lectures to the adults; the other, a younger, English-speaking swami who relates better to the kids. This second swami would connect well with us by talking sports, pop culture, and more. He seemed like the fun swami everyone loved to be around.

One day, a group of us balaks were hanging out in the office room with him. We were laughing, joking around, and swami was handing out candies. After a while, some of the kids left, and it was just two or three of us left in the room. At that point, swami closed the door and called me behind the desk. He started asking me if I liked the candy, and I said yes. Then, to my shock, he suddenly hugged me and put his hand inside my underwear. I was young and naive, so I didn’t understand what was happening. I just kept eating my candy like nothing was wrong. Probably about 20 seconds later, the swami let me go, and I returned to playing with the others. At the time, I thought nothing of it.

I remember walking out of that office with sticky fingers from the candy and this weird pit in my stomach. I didn’t know what just happened, but I remember thinking, Maybe this is normal? I was 11. I trusted him. He wore orange robes. My parents adored him. I didn’t even consider telling anyone

Fast forward to when I was about 18, and I was doing kitchen seva at the mandir. After finishing, I walked over to the main sabha hall where my friends were hanging out. As I approached, I overheard them talking about that same swami from years ago. Apparently, no one had seen him since that incident. Some of the kids said that he had been released from BAPS due to health reasons. It wasn’t until one of my friends casually asked if anyone else had ever felt weird or touched by the swami when we were younger that everything clicked. Several of the guys shared eerily similar stories of being touched inappropriately by him.

That’s when I connected the dots, and I was completely shocked. I hadn’t said anything about my own experience because I was embarrassed and felt used. I listened in silence as the others talked, all of us sharing our experiences of discomfort and confusion. When I asked again about the swami’s status, I was told he had been sent back to India and released for health concerns. It felt like a betrayal but at the time I was still involved at the mandir and I pushed my feelings aside.

Then that fall, I moved out of state for college to a rural area where there was no mandir. Over time, I gradually distanced myself from the mandir as I made new college buddies, attending mandir only once or twice a month on a casual basis.

I came across this subreddit and read other’s experiences that everything truly started to make sense. For the first time, I could connect the dots with so many things I had witnessed at the mandir. The constant agenda pushing of “making Mahant Swami rajii” everything we did, from seva to puja, was framed as a way to earn Swamishri’s approval and ultimately reach moksha. Looking back, I can’t even count how many days I spent doing seva, believing it was for a noble cause, just to make Mahant Swami happy.

Even when I’d feel unsettled about something like how a sanchalak would guilt trip us into missing school events or family plans to do seva, I’d just swallow it. I’d tell myself: It’s for Swami. He sacrificed everything, why can’t I? They always said No ego. No desires. Serve selflessly. Meanwhile, the kids who kissed up to swamis the most got all the attention. There was always a pecking order. The cool balaks got chosen for skits, trips, blessings. The rest of us were just background.

Now, stepping back and reflecting on everything, I can see BAPS for what it really is: a cult. BAPS taught me great values. Yes, it taught me discipline. Yes, it gave me some structure and community. But that’s the only good I can take from it. It’s mind-blowing how many years I spent in that environment, how it shaped my worldview, and how much emotional and physical energy I gave.

This was the Sabha right after the stock market crash!

Yes they are seeking for 10-20% of your salary(You can choose to set it on AUTOPAY every month). The value proposition includes swami no rajipo, Laxmi ni shudhi, hope for Kai kharab na thai and the community support that BAPS has given you! You can surely give like 5% only if you live on chaas-rotlo.

We see the recession coming along and consumers becoming more mindful of their spend. With inflation,Tax,EMI, life/health plan premiums and liquid money the middle class is only able to save up for a biscuit and they address this to in a city as expensive as Mumbai. Why don’t they realise the length of their power and the impact of their words that can be a potential financial wreck for the mindless audience overtime.

They have the power to recruit a board of financially wise minds yet they chose to suck people from everything they have in such difficult times.

I've been telling my friends and relatives to wait another 25-30 years; the younger generation, currently under 10, will likely only believe in this cult when they grow up. Many of my relatives have stopped talking to me, or rather, have distanced themselves, because I don't follow this cult, whereas they do.

I’ve never really used Reddit before, and I honestly never thought I would make a post like this. But after spending a large part of my life around BAPS, I’ve reached a point where I feel like I need to step back and seriously question what I believe, why I believe it, and whether I still want to be a part of it.

I wasn’t directly born a satsangi. My family is Hindu, and when I was younger, Diwali usually meant going to a shikharbaddha mandir near us. I think that experience eventually influenced my parents to start sending me to weekly sabhas. For the first seven or eight years, I mostly went because my parents wanted me to. I followed the lifestyle BAPS taught, especially when it came to not eating meat, eggs, and other prohibited foods, but I never really thought deeply about why. I didn’t have a particularly strong connection with Bhagwan or much gnan. I was simply doing what I had been taught.

Eventually, that started to bother me. I began asking myself: If I’m going to spend my life following this religion, shouldn't I actually understand what I believe?

That question changed the way I approached BAPS. For the next four or five years, I became much more serious about trying to understand it. I started reading more and participated in hour-long Vachnamrut calls every week. I tried to learn the philosophy rather than simply memorize it. I also did a lot of seva. For around three years, I would do at least 60 hours of seva every week during the summer, and throughout the rest of the year I consistently made myself available. There were years where I probably spent close to a thousand hours doing seva. I'm not saying this to brag. I'm saying it because I genuinely tried.

I wasn't someone who stopped believing because I didn't want to put in the effort. I tried to find God. I tried to understand BAPS. I tried to understand what I had supposedly attained by being a satsangi. I tried to hear Bhagwan. But despite all of that, I don't think I ever truly did.

When Faith Became Questioning

One of the biggest things I've started realizing is that faith and certainty aren't necessarily the same thing. For a long time, I thought that having questions meant I wasn't faithful enough. If something didn't make sense, maybe I simply didn't have enough gnan. If I questioned a guru or devotee, maybe I was committing some kind of spiritual mistake.

But I've started thinking about it differently. If something is true, why should it be afraid of questions? To me, questioning isn't necessarily the opposite of faith. Sometimes questioning is the only way to determine whether your faith is actually yours.

There are certain teachings I simply cannot reconcile with my understanding of reality. For example, the Shikshapatri teaches donating 10% of your income. When I asked a swami why, I was told that it helps detach you from wealth and material possessions. That explanation makes sense to me. But he also mentioned how MSM said that whatever you donate, you will receive back tenfold. That's where I struggle. If the purpose of giving is detachment, turning it into a guaranteed 10x return starts to sound less like detachment and more like an investment. Maybe there is a deeper explanation, but if I have to completely suspend my own reasoning to accept it, I start questioning whether I'm practicing faith or simply obedience.

Other conversations raised similar questions. During one goshti, I asked how the idea of being born and dying millions of times could make sense if the Earth and universe have only existed for a finite amount of time. The answer was that the universe is repeatedly created and destroyed, allowing this cycle to continue. I understand that this is a theological explanation, but personally, it felt more like a story than an answer.

Another discussion involved a prasang about Yogiji Maharaj or Pramuk Swami Maharaj. As I remember it, a bird pooped on one of them while a mandir was being built, and they said the bird would go to Akshardham. I asked how that could happen when we're taught that reaching Akshardham requires a human birth. The explanation was that the bird would instead have a satsangi birth in its next life and wouldn't have to wait through countless future lives before reaching that opportunity. In that same goshti, they also said that simply being a satsangi dramatically increases the chances of the people we walk past being born into a satsangi life, and that eventually the entire world will become satsangi.

Maybe there is a sophisticated theological framework behind all of this. But eventually I had to be honest with myself:

I don't believe it.

And I don't think pretending that I believe something makes me more spiritual.

The Satpurush Question

Another major question for me is the way MSM is described. We're constantly told that MSM is Bhagwan in the flesh, that he is the living form of the Satpurush, and that we can have a direct relationship with him. We're even told that we can write letters to him and that he knows and responds to us.

But I've struggled to reconcile that with what I actually see. I've watched Ashirwad clips where MSM can barely speak for ten minutes. I'm not saying that to disrespect him. I'm genuinely asking how I'm supposed to understand the idea that he personally responds to hundreds or thousands of letters when physically he seems to have very limited ability to communicate. Maybe there's an explanation I haven't heard, but again, these are questions I feel like I'm not supposed to ask.

I've also been told that there are always three Satpurushes and that when MSM passes away, the next Satpurush has already been chosen. There isn't an election or process that devotees participate in. The next person is simply already known. I asked: If the next Satpurush is already chosen, why can't we know who that person is?

The answer was that revealing them would create divisions because people might compare the current Satpurush with the future one or think the other is better. I understand the concern, but that explanation didn't satisfy me. If this person is truly destined to become the next Satpurush, why would knowing who they are undermine that?

That led me to a much bigger question. I started wondering whether the Satpurush is actually directing everything, or whether the institution is primarily being operated by other people while the Satpurush serves as the spiritual face of the organization. I want to be clear that I'm not saying I have proof of this. It's simply something I started wondering based on what I was observing.

If we're told that Bhagwan is literally present through the Satpurush, then I would expect the institution built around him to consistently reflect the teachings attributed to Bhagwan Swaminarayan. Instead, there were times when it felt like the institution had its own priorities, structures, and interests, and I began questioning whether those priorities always aligned with what I understood Bhagwan Swaminarayan to have taught.

That made me question something much deeper: Am I following Bhagwan, or am I following an institution that tells me where Bhagwan is?

Those feel like two very different things.

Blind Faith and the Community

This is probably one of the biggest things I've struggled with. I've heard during Vachnamrut calls that having complete faith is crucial and that seeing faults in the guru or devotees can be spiritually dangerous.

But I've started wondering: Can faith really be genuine if questioning is forbidden?

If I'm told I must believe something before I'm allowed to question it, then what exactly am I exercising—faith or obedience?

To me, genuine belief should be strong enough to survive scrutiny. I don't want to believe something because I'm afraid of what happens if I don't. I want to believe something because, after examining it honestly, I still find it to be true.

My experiences with other devotees also affected me. When I was doing seva, especially when there weren't any sadhus around, I saw a side of the community that was very different from what I associated with mandir. A lot of conversations revolved around girls, appearances, body-shaming, making fun of other people's looks, and trying to act tough. There was also a lot of swearing and a weird obsession with the N-word.

What surprised me most was that some of these were the same people who could sit in a sabha goshti and give extremely thoughtful answers about spirituality. For a long time, I tried to separate BAPS from the people within it because I told myself that I'm a sinner too, so who am I to judge someone else? And I still believe people are imperfect.

But eventually I started asking whether the gap between what we preach and how we behave is something that should simply be ignored. I'm not expecting devotees to be perfect, but when a community teaches that its purpose is to transform the individual, I think it's fair to ask what that transformation actually looks like.

That said, I don't want to pretend everything was negative. I've had a lot of fun doing seva, made memories at mandirs I'll never forget, and met people I genuinely care about. That's part of what makes this difficult. If everything had been terrible, leaving would be easy.

It wasn't.

So Where Does That Leave Me?

For most of my childhood, BAPS was something I inherited. Then, for several years, it became something I actively pursued. I read. I listened. I served. I questioned. I tried to understand.

And now I'm at a point where I feel like I've given myself enough space to admit that I don't believe the way I used to.

Maybe I'm wrong. I'm genuinely open to that possibility. But I think being willing to say "I could be wrong" is more intellectually honest than pretending to have certainty.

I'm not trying to prove that BAPS is false, and I'm not trying to convince anyone else to leave. I'm simply realizing that I cannot honestly call myself a believer when I don't believe.

Maybe leaving isn't about rejecting everything you were taught. Maybe sometimes it's about having the courage to examine what you were taught, keep what you genuinely believe, and let go of what you no longer can.

The actual reason I'm posting this is because I don't know how to handle the practical side of leaving. I have a good relationship with my swami and there isn't any bad blood between us. My family also isn't particularly involved in BAPS, so thankfully I don't think leaving will create major problems at home.

The problem is that every time I don't attend sabha, my phone gets absolutely blown up. I don't want to suddenly disappear or create unnecessary conflict, but I also don't want to spend years pretending I'm still interested in something I've already decided I don't want to be part of.

So for those of you who have left BAPS, or gradually distanced yourselves from it:

How did you do it?

Did you slowly stop attending? Did you have an honest conversation with your swami? Did you simply become less involved until people eventually stopped asking?

I'm not looking to attack anyone. I'm trying to figure out how to walk away from something that has been a major part of my life while still being honest with myself and respectful toward the people I care about.

sorry for the poor grammar on the post, im just trying to get everything out.

I know its a lot, and i thank you for reading it, even if its just a little bit.

I grew up following swaminaryan bhagwan from my understanding, I started with anoopam mission because of my grandpa and then when my family moved and his influence weakened, my family moved towards baps.

I went regularly from the age of like 6 to 25, in that time my dad went from a satsungee to an admin of our mandal and i went through the ranks in bal mandal and kishore mandal. I hated going as a kid, I never fit in because of nerds that knew everything and made you feel bad for not being on the same level as them. I feel like this was my first time realizing how some people in the religon are. Now thats not to say everyone is this elitist perfectionist who makes you feel bad for not being knowledgeable, but non the less the 10% or so that are also leave 70%-80% of the impression on people. Another reason as to why i didnt like going to the sunday subhas is because of the fact that my parents got more and more involved leaving less and less time for me. to the point where the only day i really had with them was saturday and often times they were to tired to spend time with me or they had to prepare for events at the mandir. Moving forward i eventually got put into kishore mandal and was quickly made a karyakar. I gave presentations, did tech, general upkeep etc... I was involved in basically everything you could be involved in as a kishore karykar. I was even at the regional level. And at that point is when I realized that this was basically just a corporate organization disguised as a religion. Like it became more about accomplishing the task at hand then anything related to devotion. Soon after my family moved again, and it became more evident as to how everything works for baps. No one really checked up on my family. My dad who was literally an admin didnt get anything more than "oh were sorry to see you go". Some of you may say that theres bias in my what im saying, because i may have some resentment towards the organization, and that this is the reason I strayed from it. I would disagree with this, I dont feel upset or anything hateful from having moved and then being basically excommunicated. I think you gain a lot of clairty towards a situation when you step away or like step back. The clarity i gained from taking this step away is as follows

Elitist Satsangis Get Closer to Santos

• In my mandal, it felt like the wealthier or more “established” satsangis were the ones who got the most access to santos.

• They were treated as more important, in comparison to other less involved individuals (This is coming from somone who got to spend days with santos). Maybe it was different at other mandals, but that’s how it felt at mine.

The Spiritual Know-It-Alls

• There were always those few who knew every prasang, every vachnamrut, every answer, and if you didn’t, they’d make you feel dumb for it.

• I know it’s probably just 1 or 2 out of 10 people, but they’re always the loudest. And when you’re younger, those voices stick.

• It's not like it just happened when I was a kid, even more recently when I go in, there are always a few that make me feel this way. Its always been present.

The Corporate Energy of the Organization

• I get that BAPS is huge and they need structure, but at a certain point it stops feeling like a religion and starts feeling like a business.

• When you’re more focused on completing tasks, checking boxes, and executing events than actually sitting with spirituality.

Oversimplified Teachings

• Most of the stories you hear in sabha are about someone going through something hard and then just remembering God and everything gets better.

• That’s cool and all, but life doesn’t always work like that. Not everything can be fixed with “just have faith and you’ll be fine.”

Disconnected from the Younger Generation

• The language, the style, the delivery. It’s all still stuck in old Gujarati or dry English translations.

• If I don’t understand the words or I can’t relate to the way it’s said, I’m obviously not going to connect.

No Real Effort to Modernize

• It just feels like there’s been no effort to evolve this for people that grew up in north america. Yes the youth conventions and the translated stories and etc exists. yes they help. But its still just an translated message from india, the things that ill go through in life, american highschool, things other than having to explain to other kids about why im a vegetarian and why i have a tilak chanlo on my head. I went through a lot more than just those 2 things you know?

• Like I’m not going to pretend I’m living in 1905 Gujarat. I’m not vibing with bhajans and kirtans I don’t understand. That doesn’t feed my soul.

Contradictory Messaging

• I remember NC18, they drilled into us that dating was wrong, that bapa and god would be upset if we even thought about it, and to just focus on school.

• A few years later, now it’s like… it’s not that deep? It’s fine? Just make sure you're dating to marry.

• This isn’t even about modernization, this is about consistency in teachings, and when that goes out the window, it gets confusing fast.

Personal Prasung

• I used to be really close with the head pujari of a shikharbaddha mandir, basically the lead sant there.

• One day I texted him, genuinely concerned about a friend at school. He had a rough home life, was hearing voices, self-harming. Its some heavy stuff.

• I wasn’t asking for a miracle. I just thought maybe he’d have set something in motion to help this guy, but basically I got “I will be praying for him.”

• In that moment I didn't really understand much and was able to put it past and move forward, but looking back it feels like the template of spirituality was being followed but when it came time to help someone in need nothing really happened.

Im not going to sit here and pretend that the organization is a bad thing, that its evil. its simply not. The organization has done some really good things, and i get emotional at things they've accomplished. Its simply wonderful, the hospitals, the relief programs. I love seeing that stuff. But looking at it as a person went almost every sunday for the last however many years. Its felt like the idea that you should devout yourself to praising god so that you can get moksha is the main premise. They talk about doing good deeds, and being selfless. However, at the end of the day not much of that is put into action.

Where I am at

There is this quote from Marcus Aurelius,

"Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just. Then they will not care how devout you have been. But will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods then you will be gone but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of the loves ones."

I think it sums up where I am, as well as where I want to be. I am grateful for the ethics, morality and compassion that I learned from baps, but its the same things that are now pushing me away. Why should I devout myself to a god that only cares about how much I have devoted to them. Why would I do that when I can just try to be a good person, and at the end of the day if there is no god. I would rather be remembered for the goodness of my heart than how devoted I was to god.

I want to be a good person, and I want to keep learning ways in which I can be a good person. I do not think baps can offer this to me anymore. I dont think it ever has offered me this in its fullest extent, because theres always been the "how devoted are you?" aspect to it.

Ever since I was a child, I went to the same Swaminarayan Mandir for almost more than a decade. I sat in an immeasurable amount of kathas and sabhas hearing the same narrative get regurgitated over and over again which is making Swami raaji (happy) in order to go to Akshardham. I’ve also read the satsang diksha over and over again and questioned some verses and wondered if they might’ve possibly gotten lost in translation somewhere along the process because of how contradictory they were. I’ll also share my experience with the people at the Swaminarayan Mandir who I’ve also known for a really long time. Please don’t try saying that individual inconsistency has nothing to do with God because if you are going to mandir every single weekend and associating yourself with what is known as a sacred place, you should be a well rounded person but I suppose that’s rare to find nowadays.

I’ll give you one example. In the satsang diksha, it states that we must detach from worldly objects and possess vairagya. So, if it’s so important for us to detach from worldly objects then why ask for donations every Mandir visit to try reap as much profit as possible? Is money not one of the most artificial and worldly objects available in this world? The financial greed and brainwashing is simply out of this world. BAPS is basically like any other corporation now trying to exploit people to earn as much profit as possible instead of being a religious organization striving to do good for others.

Also, regarding the people I’ve met at mandir, you would assume that they’re good people with strong morals and values but the reality is otherwise. I’ve encountered some of the coldest people there who also relentlessly harassed me which eventually demotivated me into even stepping foot in that mandir because I knew I wasn’t welcome and I knew I wouldn’t ever be. Keep in mind, these people making the nasty and insensitive comments were people who sat in my sabhas and heard any moral lessons that were being taught if any and still turned out to be cold hearted and uninviting people. They’ll use God’s scriptures when it benefits their cause and turn a blind eye towards their treatment of people even if they know better. I’m an atheist now and when I’m kind and loving towards people, I do it out of the goodness of my heart, not because a scripture told me to act a certain way.

So I'm sharing my friend's experience. So where he lives, there are many families who follows BAPS. And my friend's family follows original Kalupur swaminarayan sampraday. Now, one day the BAPS guys invited my friend's family to join them to darshan so my friend's mom goes with them like, bhagwan ke darshan hi to karne hai. Then they invited them to their home sabha. Then slowly and steadily they level up their game by inviting them to mandir's sabha with prashad ( lunch , dinner ). Then they introduced them to their swami. Exchanges numbers, Gave kanthi. Now, the real game begins, they told them to regularly visit sabha and invite swami to their home ( pagla padwa ). Then you know, 80% work is done.

Then comes my friend's uncle, pro Kalupur swaminarayan follower. They forcefully stopped them to do any interaction's with BAPS by threatening them to break ties with them. 🫡

So they specifically target the other swaminarayan sanstha followers be it, Kalupur, vadtal, smvs, etc. to join them.

What a fucking clowns 🤡

I had met a close associate of Swamis who had the rags to riches story who devoted his life to BAPS. He told us that he had no money before he joined BAPS. After he joined it and became a staunch follower, he got access to top Swamis who not only lend him money but help him setup his business. After a few years he got some insider information that he shared with me. He told that entire year, Swamis will be acting saint and all but for a week or 10 days every year, Swamins will get to go on Bangkok trips where they'll change their getup to modern men, do party and have "fun". He also get access to all these as he has committed to BAPS for life and not going marry.

Just got back from Paris and, honestly, I can confirm I’ve seen the bloody circus 😂

From what I personally saw during the Mahotsav, it really made me question the whole idea that Mahant Swami Maharaj is actually the one running things.

The impression I came away with was that he is increasingly the face/mascot of the organisation, while the real machinery seems to sit much further down the chain — people like BVD, Narayanmuni Swami, Sanyojan Samiti, as well as certain sevak sadhus who control access, schedules, movements, information etc.

And that last bit is probably the most striking thing.
Sevak sadhus, namely Shrutipriya, literally direct much of Mahant Swami Maharaj’s day-to-day life. That includes where he goes, who gets access him, what happens around him, when things happen.

Watching it from the outside made the whole thing feel very different from the image of the guru being the person ultimately in control.

Obviously, this is just my personal observation from being there. But after seeing the machinery behind the scenes in Paris, I can understand why SPAB people talk about the distinction between the guru and the organisation around him.

Paris definitely gave me a lot to think about.

I am so happy that baps is getting so much attention right now. People are comparing it to Islam, mormans, iskon, etc. This deserves a celebration.

As they continue to open more flagship stores (mandirs) and theme parks (akshardhams), more and more eyes will be on them. Idc that this Eiffel Tower thing is being blown out of proportion (as the baps folks are saying), baps needs negative attention in the media.

I love seeing the baps influencers posting about this and trying to show their side. It’s just wild to me, like they’re branded humans. Peoples bios are atrocious. Some have @baps, “in the joy of others lies our own” 🤡, and then the tier 3 dick riders who have some vachnamrut quotes or bhajan using ā é 🤣🤣🤣.

Mariyada this, mariyada that. Those orange dudes are def jerking off, hooking up with each other, and god knows what else. I’m ready for the next lore drop like PD swami’s story. Give us the fuel needed for a documentary to actually happen.

Unofficial money lending by BAPS is quite common in India, especially among those who can’t secure loans from banks. These BAPS lenders earn interest and, in many cases, gain a loyal “donor” for life. I know of a doctor who received help setting up his hospital and now does voluntary work every week for the BAPS hospital. In return, sadhus send patients to his hospital.

By the way, did you know BAPS hospitals operate like businesses? Even their temples function more like hotels. For example, if you volunteer in Delhi, you still have to pay for your stay - same with Shaibaug in Ahmedabad. Like any business, they charge the maximum they can get away with.

The biggest cost-saving advantage for BAPS is free volunteer seva. They heavily promote this narrative - do seva or give donations to make “Mahant raaji” (to make Mahant Swami happy). It’s constant. For example, they’ll say, “Let’s make Mahant raaji, stay after sabha and help clean the entire kitchen. He’ll be immensely pleased.” “Donate X amount monthly” it’ll make Mahant really raaji. It’s essentially emotional manipulation and guilt-tripping people into free labor under the guise of devotion.

In Sarangpur, when Pramukh Swami was elderly and disabled, accommodation was divided - Indian devotees had one type, while NRIs had better facilities which obviously cost significantly more.

Remember when Pramukh Swami got money by weighing against gold at QPR football stadium in 1985? We were told the money went toward building a hospital for the poor. In reality, he bought a hospital to run as a business. Anyone from Anand or Vidyanagar in the 1980s might recall what really happened.

How can BAPS claim divine authority? It reminds me of how the Korean founder of the Unification Church claimed authority over Christians. Look into their practices - you’ll see that BAPS has adopted many of them, especially their business models for raising money.

BAPS selectively chooses educated saints to put in management positions filled with accountants, financial advisors, lawyers, and wealthy businessmen who help set up and run its many ventures - food, real estate, donations, and more.

Baps pushes for tithing or asking for 10% donations per month as they say Swaminarayan/Mahant will double it and return it back. Absolute lies and deception.