2. Manifestation of Shri Swaminarayan

In every age, whenever religion is on the decline, and people go astray, God comes back to deliver the holy, to destroy the sin of the sinners and to establish the path of righteousness. Since long time, before the manifestation of Shri Swaminarayan among men, our land had been overrun by decoits, tyrants, despots and other evil agencies. The period was marked by anarchy, chaos and total collapse of morality. Kundapanth, Vamamarga, Kaul, Shakta and Shushka-Vedant were prevalent. The evil Tamas Yajnas were in practice. Even Vaishnavism had weakened under the impact of this all-pervading moral decay.

Thus, when our land was plunged into darkness and chaos, Bhagvan Shri Swaminarayan manifested Himself as the luminous son of Bhaktimata and Dharmadev on 9th day of the bright half of Chaitra of Samvat Year 1837 (April 2, 1781 AD) at Chhapaiyapur near Ayodhya. His father's real name was Hariprasad but as he strictly followed the path of righteousness, he was called Dharmadev; His mother Premvati was called Bhaktimata because she had all the qualities of an ideal devotee.

The actual arrival of Shri Swaminarayan was heralded by the birth of some Muktas, the liberated or the self-realised souls and saints. As soon as the Lord descended on the earth, these great souls joined Him in His work of bringing about a social and religious revolution. The way the sunrise illumines all the dark directions and quickens life, the dawn of our Lord's birth was extraordinarily radiant. It was a dawn of spiritualism. People began to experience divine joy. Some of them saw His divine self with naked eyes. In some hearts the desire to renounce automatically arose and in the hearts of common men there arose a wish for salvation, to attain ideal perfection. These were the sure signs of our Lord's manifestation.

The manifestation of Supreme Lord Shri Swaminarayan was marked by revolution in every walk of social, religious and political life. The eighteenth century was a period of great revolutionaries, great thinkers and poets. In Gujarat, Kutchh and Kathiawar, great devotees and poets like Bhoja, Ranchhod, Lalo and Dayaram were born. It was during this period that the great social reformer, Raja Ram Mohan Roy had launched his reformist activities. In Indian history this period is remembered as an age of great revolutions. Lord Shri Swaminarayan's contributions to the history of revolutions of this period was the greatest.