Talk:Shikshapatri

Untitled

The article says, "Lord Swaminarayan composed his blue-print for moral and social order in this ancient sacred language."

It then says,

"It was translated into Sanskrit by Shreeji Maharaj."

Why was any translation needed?Fconaway 06:09, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

this article needs to be elaborated on.

POV Edit

This scripture is key to all members of the faith and not just the Swaminarayan Sampraday. Please refrain from making that sneaky edit. Moksha88 17:33, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

External links

Please explain your reasons for this revision. The website's title is Swaminarayan Satsang.Fconaway 00:58, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Current revision (23:24, 6 March 2007) (edit) (undo) Haribhagat (Talk | contribs) Line 10: An English translation of the Shikshapatri with further analysis - Swaminarayan Sampraday

BAPS manipulated version of Shikshpatri and intentional removal of Acharya and Acharyas’ wives verses

Kunze (2021) documents that BAPS’s published editions of the Śikṣāpatrī intentionally omit verses 62, 71–72, and 123–134 — passages in which Sahajanand Swami explicitly commands followers to honor the two Acharyas and their wives as spiritual leaders. These verses are considered fundamental to the structure of the Swaminarayan Sampraday, yet BAPS editions remove them entirely while marketing their texts as faithful representations of the Śikṣāpatrī. Because the Śikṣāpatrī is the only scripture personally written by Swaminarayan for his entire fellowship, these omissions are significant. Kunze and other scholars interpret them as intentional editorial interventions aimed at redefining the text’s authority. This selective editing, combined with the decline of daily Śikṣāpatrī reading among BAPS devotees, has been cited as evidence that BAPS followers are not engaging with Swaminarayan’s original teachings in full.

Should the Śikṣāpatrī article add a subsection summarizing this documented scholarly criticism — that BAPS editions of the text have been deliberately altered to exclude the Acharya-related verses, thereby presenting an incomplete and potentially misleading version of Swaminarayan’s foundational scripture?

Sources()

Kunze, Andrew Carl. Transnational Svāminārāyaṇ Hinduism: Mass Mediation and the Rise of BAPS. PhD diss., University of Chicago, 2021.

Gems from the Shikshapatri, trans. Sadhu Vivekjivandas & Sadhu Amrutvijaydas (BAPS Swaminarayan Aksharpith, 2010).

Proposed Addition

-BAPS version of Shikshapatri-

Academic research has highlighted discrepancies between the original Śikṣāpatrī and the versions published by the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Sanstha (BAPS). According to Andrew Carl Kunze (2021), BAPS’s editions — including Gems from the Shikshapatri (2010) — omit verses 62, 71–72, and 123–134, which enjoin followers to respect and support the Acharyas and their wives as appointed leaders of the Sampraday. These omissions remove critical components of Swaminarayan’s own instructions. Kunze summarizes that these edits represent an intentional manipulation of scripture, reflecting BAPS’s distinct theological position and contributing to a separation from the Swaminarayan Sampraday. Critics argue that such editorial practices mislead readers into believing they are engaging with Swaminarayan’s complete words when, in fact, key doctrinal content has been removed.

Please review ()

Touchedme123 (talk) 15:30, 29 October 2025 (UTC)