What is the basic philosophy of BAPS?
A. Summary Within the Hindu religion, the Swaminarayan Sampraday is a Navya-Vishishtadvait Bhakti Sampraday which advocates the worship of God within the disciplines of dharma. The Swaminarayan Sampraday believes that there are five entities which are eternal – they have never been created nor can they ever be destroyed. The entities are jiva, ishwar, maya, Brahma, and Parabrahma. In the philosophy propagated by Bhagwan Swaminarayan, Parabrahma, the Supreme God, has a divine form, is the all-doer and is always present on earth in person or through the God-realised sadhu (the Satpurush), the manifestation of Aksharbrahma. The soul, the jiva, never merges or dissolves into God, nor is it a part of God, but it is always subservient to God. The jiva, through absolute surrender and attachment to the Satpurush, attains the realised state and becomes eligible to offer pure worship to God.
