VANCOUVER, CANADA, July 10, 2018 (Press Release): The 17th World Sanskrit Conference, the premier international forum for Sanskrit scholars, recognized Bhagwan Swaminarayan’s Akshar-Purushottam Darshan as the first new independent school of Vedanta since the 16th century. The recently authored ground-breaking Sanskrit works on the Akshar-Purushottam Darshan, the Swaminarayan Bhashyam and the Swaminarayan Siddhanta-Sudha by Sadhu Bhadreshdas of the BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, were also launched in the conference’s inaugural session on 9 July 2018 in Vancouver, Canada.
More than 600 eminent Sanskrit scholars and educators had gathered from over 40 countries for this historic event. The triennial World Sanskrit Conference, which for the last half-century has been bringing the finest minds in the world of Sanskrit together to advance understanding of Sanskrit language and literature, was held for the first time in Canada, at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. World Sanskrit Conference organizing committee member and senior Sanskrit scholar from the University of British Columbia, Professor Ashok Aklujkar said, “Bhadreshdas Swami is one of the most amazing personalities of the religious traditions of India that I have ever met. His scholarly genius is jaw-dropping, and his commentaries on the Prasthantrayi are a truly great achievement. I think all of us at the World Sanskrit Conference are fortunate to have a bhashyakar in our midst. Just as Sri Kasi Vidvat Parisad acknowledged Swaminarayan Bhagwan’s Akshar-Purushottam Darshan as a distinct darshan in the Vedanta tradition, we are honored to do the same from the platform of the World Sanskrit Conference.”
Mahamahopadhyaya Bhadreshdas Swami, an eminent Sanskrit scholar and ordained swami of the BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, completed the Swaminarayan Bhashyam, a five-volume comprehensive Sanskrit commentary on Hinduism’s three Vedic canonical texts (Prasthanatrayi) – the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita and Brahma Sutras – in 2007. These three texts form the foundation for the philosophical beliefs of Hindu Vedanta (commentarial) traditions. In 2017, Bhadreshdas Swami also completed the Swaminarayana-Siddhanta-Sudha, a classical Sanskrit dialectic treatise that offers an exposition, justification, and defense of the Akshar-Purushottam Darshan’s theological and philosophical principles.
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Dada JP Vaswani Passes Away in Pune
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PUNE, INDIA, July 12, 2018 (indiatvnews.com) Spiritual leader and head of Sadhu Vaswani mission Dada JP Vaswani passed away in Pune today. He was 99. Confirming the news, the mission issued an official statement which read: “0901hrs IST July 12 2018, on sacred Guruvaar day, our Beloved Revered Dada J.P. Vaswani passes on, from the seen to the unseen. Ever-loving, ever-giving, may he continue to bless us from the beyond.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered condolences to the nation on the spiritual leader’s demise. “I join the hundreds of thousands of people whose lives were touched by Dada J.P. Vaswani in remembering him. His thoughts, teachings and social service efforts live on, highlighting the values he stood for and the work he did,” the PM tweeted.
Born in Hyderabad, Sindh (Pakistan) on August 2, 1918, Vaswani was a world renowned spiritual leader known for promoting vegetarianism and animal rights. He is credited to have written over 150 self-help books. The spiritual leader spoke at numerous venues including the British House of Commons in London, the Global Forum of Spiritual Leaders in Oxford, the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, and the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders at the United Nations in New York. He was the recipient of the 1998 U Thant Peace Award, given by the United Nations. Dada Vaswani’s birthday is celebrated as a Global Forgiveness Day. Last year, on his birthday Prime Minister Narendra Modi had addressed a gathering to mark the day and observe “moment of calm.”