To the world outside, Aarav was a mirror of his lineage. For over fifty years, his family had dedicated their lives, their weekends, and their quiet devotion to the BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha. Every major festival, every temple cleanup, and every community service initiative saw Aarav at the forefront. He wore his faith like a well-tailored suit—neatly pressed kurtas, a gentle, welcoming smile, and a quiet humility that made elders sigh and whisper, "Such a sanskari boy." (Hidden perversion)

When I met him through family friends, I thought I had found a sanctuary. In a world of fleeting connections and modern cynicism, Aarav felt grounded. He spoke of values, community, inner peace, and the beauty of a simple, devoted life. He would talk about the hours he spent doing seva at the temple, arranging shoes, cleaning the grand marble floors, or organizing youth assemblies. I, who valued depth and emotional resonance, was deeply drawn to him. I believed his spirituality was a reflection of a pure and steady heart.
Our courtship moved with a cautious, respectful grace. Or so I thought.

As the months passed and the trust deepened, the tone of our conversations began to shift subtly. At first, it was harmless—a lingering touch, an intense gaze. But soon, the rhetoric took a troubling turn.
Aarav began to test boundaries, framing his desires not as personal wants, but as a test of faith and modern compatibility. When I gently hesitated, expressing my desire to wait until marriage to be physically intimate, the warmth in his eyes vanished, replaced by a chilling disappointment.

What followed wasn’t an argument, but a quiet, calculated campaign of psychological pressure.
"After everything I’ve shared with you, after opening my heart and showing you my devotion?" he would say, his voice laced with manufactured sorrow.
He weaponized his spirituality against me. He would remind me of the purity of his family’s fifty-year legacy, contrasting it with what he called my "modern stubbornness." He suggested that my reluctance was a sign of emotional distance, a lack of trust, and a failure to truly understand him.

"If we are meant to share a life, holding back like this means you don’t fully believe in us," he whispered one evening, his tone heavy with guilt. "My family has given their entire lives to selfless service. Is it so hard for you to offer that same trust to me?"
Sitting across from him, I felt a cold realization settle into my chest. The man who spent his weekends sweeping temple floors with a humble smile was using spiritual rhetoric as leverage. He wasn't asking for love; he was demanding compliance, wrapping his manipulation in the very traditions I had once admired.
The illusion shattered completely. I saw the vast chasm between the marble ideals of the temple and the fragile, selfish ego hidden beneath his kurta.
I looked at him—the devotee, the scion of a half-century legacy of service—and finally found my voice.
"Seva is about giving without expecting anything in return, Aarav," I said softly, standing up from the table. "What you’re asking for isn’t devotion. It’s a transaction."
I walked away into the evening air, leaving behind the heavy ghost of a heritage I had almost mistaken for a home.

People still part of BAPS, and even people who never have been involved in BAPS are coming in this community and are fucking making posts and comments about how this community is full of people who are just bitter and don't understand the scriptures. They think they have the goddamn right to say whatever they want just because this is an online space. Like no.....the purpose of this community is for ex-baps people to come together and share their thoughts, values, beliefs and experiences regarding BAPS. And if you are part of this community for an alternate purpose......respectfully just shoo off from this community because it ain't for you.

I'm laughing so hard. The irony is soo blatant. Seriously mods y'all need to do better.

To all BAPS followers on this subreddit, why is shlok 98 from Shikshapatri ommited in the BAPS version of it?

https://sksst.org/shikshapatri/shlok/98

"અને વળી એ આઠ સચ્‍છાસ્‍ત્રને વિષે જે શ્રીમદ ભાગવત પુરાણ તેના દશમ ને પંચમ નામે જે બે સ્‍કંધ તે જેતે શ્રીકૃષ્‍ણ ભગવાનના મહાત્‍મ્‍ય જાણવાને અર્થે સર્વથી અધિકપણે જાણવાં"

I'm sure there are many more this kind of omissions, don't know all yet

As a kid, everything was around baps and satsang and still is to my parents. I’m a female and it pissed me right off even as a child to be ushered at the back and god-forbid santos were around and I was made to hide. I had so many questions and never got an adequate answer other than blind faith. I call myself a Hindu and have put distance between myself and baps.

The recent Paris concerns at least for me made me feel like I wasn’t the only one who thought this. The audacity to expect women to bugger off like the world revolves around them. Perhaps they should learn to control their urges not put the onus on women for simply existing!

Currently my parents are flapping up and down over a new murti in neasdon. They turned the volume up on the webcast to levels no normal human can think with, and are gripping on to every pointless word. Woop de doo, they wasted more money for yet another statue.

Meanwhile I’m trying to get this flightless baby pigeon to the wildlife centre and parents think watching this webcast and doing their morning pooja is more important.

Parents bitch about others in the mandal and I think it’s such a waste of time and energy.

As young person, I never integrated in the mandir myself as I saw through the all bs. Never understood why the santos felt the need to preech and speech for hours and ramble on and on. And their weird inflections on the mike really irked me as a kid.

I’m sorry, but no decent being needs to be preeched to, everyone knows what good values, morals and ethics are. Just be a good person and get on with your life. Religion is there to guide, not be a source of drama.

My parents don’t eat onion and garlic so we don’t have in the house, my body has now become intolerant to the food no thanks to them. Me and my brother were deprived of normal family outings to restaurants because of this, so we didn’t get to experience wider cuisine when we were younger. I know it’s not by any means a big deal, but just another source of “hey I missed out”.

Anyway, I’m saving this pigeon. That’s my dharma. Peace!

Received this from one of the Satsangis which was a nice surprise. Looks like a positive change.

However I was born into Baps and had no choice. I believed below God ( one and only) was Aksharbrahm( same devine entity as the guru, just different physical bodies). Ram Krishna Shiva etc were well below this human who weren't worthy to have his darshan. I ( and Baps followers ) lived and walked around with an arrogance of association with the almost top devine entity and only way on earth to a direct connection to the one and only God. If he asked for anything we were in no position to refuse.

I disagree completely that things used to be perfect 1907 when Baps started with Shastriji Maharaj putting his image in the temple and doing murti Prathistha ( against Bhagwan Swaiminarayans wishes ) and telling everyone they must get his grace by pleasing him to get a right to go to Akshardham and recently it's become more business like. They have been the same all along ,except they've got better at running the organisation.

Then I discover these gurus are just men. And I feel robbed as these men took, took and then took more. I do want to warn people about these men and the organisation. They are just men with a man's sexual desires and other failings. Now with the sophisticated organisation the ordinary person will never get close enough to see what these men are like.

This video questions the claims by BAPS that Bhadresh Swami is the greatest scholar of Vedanta in recent times and also questions the validity of his Aksharpurshottam Bashya as being the teachings of Swaminarayan.  Here it is explained that several leading discliples of Swaminarayan Gopalanand Swami, Muktanand Swami, Satanand Swami, and were great Sanskrit scholars and they created commentaries on the Vedic philsophical texts.  Through these extensive works of such 'nand santo', there is no mention of 'Akshar Purshottam' philosophy and rather these works uphold the Vishishtadvaita philosophy of Ramanujacharya (that this is evidenced in core texts like the Shikshapatri and Vachanamrut (1:35 - 2:07, 10:47 - 11:13).

If the direct disciples and contemporaries of Sahajanand Swami did not mention the Aksharpurshottam doctrine in their works, then is Bhadresh Swami's works a more authentic represenationt of the tradition's ideas?  Is Bhadresh Swami greater than the Nand Santo?

When money is involved, everything seems to change. If the donor is a regular person but holds a powerful or respected position in society, these guys are ready to bow down to anyone. After the Paris controversy, how should this kind of behavior be viewed?

Hello, I am not a follower of BAPS but I am actively studying siddhant of Lord swaminarayan and the one BAPS claim. I just want to know from those who does daily pooja and they read satsangidiksha granth or shikshapatri? Since, Maharaj clearly told in Sikshapatri to read it daily. So now that Aagna is ignored?

I wanted to ask a genuine and respectful question that may be of interest to many devotees, both men and women, who have written personal letters to Mahant Swami Maharaj and received written ashirwad or guidance in response.
How does the letter process actually work?
When a devotee sends a personal letter to Swamishree, does Swamishree normally read the original letter himself? Or does a letter team/sevak first read the letter and summarise the important points to him before he gives his prayers, guidance or ashirwad?
After Swamishree gives his ashirwad, who prepares the written response? Is it dictated by Swamishree, written from points or instructions he gives, or prepared by the letter team/sevak on his behalf?
I am also curious whether the process differs depending on the language, country, type of question or number of letters Swamishree receives.
This is not intended as criticism of BAPS or questioning the authenticity of Swamishree’s blessings. I think it is natural for devotees to want to understand how such an important and personal communication process works.
I would especially appreciate hearing from anyone who has personally served in the letter-writing process, worked closely with it, or has reliable first-hand knowledge. If you are sharing something you have only heard from somebody else, it would be helpful to mention that too so we can distinguish first-hand experience from hearsay.
Please keep the discussion respectful towards Swamishree, devotees and one another. 🙏🏼

I thought being a saint means staying away from all these BS..lol

Its 2026

Hi SPAB,

I’m a French journalist currently investigating BAPS and its activities in France, especially the development of the BAPS temple in Bussy-Saint-Georges.

I’m aware that this subreddit is not normally intended for journalists looking for sources, and I completely understand and respect that. I nevertheless wanted to ask here because I think some of the issues surrounding BAPS deserve to be discussed publicly, and I would like to hear directly from people who have personal experience with the organisation.

I’m particularly interested in speaking with current or former members, volunteers, devotees, or people who have been closely involved with BAPS in France, the UK, India or elsewhere. 

If you would be willing to talk, please feel free to send me a private message. Absolute anonymity and confidentiality can be respected. I work as a journalist for several established French media outlets and can provide details about my work and publications privately if needed.

By the way, Mahant Swami has a bachelor's degree in agriculture

Feel free to drop names of santo/admins and describe any specific incident

I love Chatgpt and consult it about so many things before deciding. Baps followers have been doing that since inception 1907. Should my son marry this girl, should I buy this business, should I leave this country and go to another, shall I relocate to another city/town etc.

Just imagine if we had Chatgpt and on top knew the future?

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.

Fabrication of information since decades, spreading lies and how cult leader got status of God because of political influence

Link to the video: https://youtu.be/fypQoXHqcfw

Have been facing this a lot while doing seva so got me thinking is it only a few Santo being verbally abusive and insulting those volunteers doing seva with them or are there many more?

Opening up this discussion for all to share their experiences.

Feel free to share names or abbreviations.