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May 2000, India : Swaminarayan Mantra Rally
Sahajanand Swami gave the six-letter mahamantra on the 14th day
after Ramanand Swami attained the Lord's abode. That auspicious
date was Samvat Year 1858 Magashar Sud 13 (Tuesday, 1801). The place
was Faneni. Shri Hari was addressing a mammoth gathering. He instructed
the assembled devotees, "Hereafter the Pragat Bhagwan should be
worshipped as Swaminarayan." Ever since that day the Swaminarayan
mantra is uttered with reverence and a spirit of auspiciousness.
To celebrate the bicentenary of the mantra, Pramukh Maharaj has
ordained that the 200th anniversary of the Swaminarayan mahamantra
should be celebrated in a fitting manner.
For the past two years individuals and a congregation of devotees
chant and repeat the mantra to commemorate the bicentenary. The
bicentenary celebration will be held in 1½ years from now
in 2001.
As part of the celebrations, Swaminarayan mantra rallies were held
this Summer from April to May. In every Satsang mandal on the tithi
of the mahamantra, Vad-Ekadashi of each month, a 12-hour non-stop
dhun of the mantra is chanted. Besides this thousands of devotees
are regularly engaged in writing the mahamantra (lekhan) and chanting
the holy name with a rosary.
Unmindful of the torrid heat of Chaitra and Vaishakh (April-May
2000) 1,255 Satsang Centres in the regions of Jamnagar, Bhadra,
Junagadh, Bhavnagar, Surendranagar, Amreli, Mehsana, Amdavad, Kheda,
Vadodara, Surat, Valsad, Silvassa and Mumbai and many smaller centres
saw small and big rallies.
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Places
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No.
of Rallies
|
Devotees
|
| Saurashtra |
47
|
22,145
|
| North Gujarat and
Amdavad |
-
|
25,712
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| Kheda-Anand
Dist. |
37
|
23,180
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| Vadodara, Panchmahal and Bharuch
Dist. |
32
|
20.863
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| South Gujarat, Mumbai and Silvassa |
63
|
28,463
|
In general, the mantra rally comprised of
a main float on a truck with the murtis of Lord Swaminarayan and
Pramukh Swami Maharaj, decorated bullock carts, camel carts, tractors,
children dressed in colorful costumes, a band piping the tune of
the Swaminarayan dhun accompanied by youths singing the dhun. Women
carried auspicious pots on their heads.
The mahamantra rallies breathed a new air of devotional fervor and
joy. The devotees enthusiastically participated and the bystanders
waited and watched the procession with reverence and respect.
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