Rajkot: Pilgrim town Virpur is observing a complete strike today. The strike will continue tomorrow as well. The locals are observing a strike against the Swaminarayan monk’s unacceptable remarks regarding Jalaram Bapa. The locals held a foot march to Jalaram Mandir and decided to shut their businesses for two days. The decision will be taken after that for the next course of actions. The locals so far are demanding Gyanprasad Swami of the Swaminarayan sect come to Virpur in person and tender an apology for allegedly distorting the facts regarding Jalaram Bapa.

Priests of various branches of the Swaminarayan sect have often been accused of distorting facts about Hindu gods and goddesses and presenting Sahajanand Swami (Ghanshyam Pandey) as superior. A huge controversy had started a couple of years ago when Swaminarayan Mandir in Sarangpur placed a mural showing Hindu God Hanuman taking blessings from Sahajanand Swami of the Swaminarayan sect, who was born around 200 years ago.

This latest controversy involves Swaminarayan monk Gyanprakash Swami and his fictitious remarks in which he stated that Jalaram Bapa would take blessings from Swaminarayan monk Gunatit Swami and the free meal distribution by Jalaram Mandir is due to blessings from Swaminarayan monk Gunatit Swami.

Watch | Speaking on controversial remarks made by a Swaminarayan monk on Jalaram Bapa, Rajkot Lok Sabha MP and BJP leader Parshottam Rupala says, “Jalaram Bapa is a revered figure with a large number of devotees in Saurashtra, across the nation, and beyond. Jalaram Bapa is a… https://t.co/P9cAjFy8Jz pic.twitter.com/aM1dAmShwz

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Virpur Jalaram Mandir, in response to such a distortion, clarified that Jalaram Bapa’s only Guru was Bhojalram Bapa and Sadavrat (free meal service) is going on for over 205 years, inspired by Bhojalram Bapa.

Gyanprakash Swami, meanwhile, said he read about the meeting of Jalaram Bapa and Gunatit Swami in a book. It is interesting to note that several books published by various branches of the Swaminarayan sect are recently questioned for alleged distortion in race to show established Hindu gods inferior in comparison to Sahajanand Swami (Ghanshyam Pandey), whom Swaminarayan sect followers call Bhagwan Swaminarayan. In light of the recent controversy, photographs of books like Sadguru Gatha and Amar Itihas and screenshots of Swaminarayan Gurukul’s PDF version book have gone viral in which the story of the so-called meeting between Gunatit Swami and Jalaram Bapa is described.

Last month, a group of people had met in Ahmedabad and decided to serve notice to all branches of the Swaminarayan sect over distorted literature insulting Hindu gods and goddesses. The meeting also decided to go to the court if notices are not replied to. DeshGujarat