The
Shikshapatri (
DevanagariDevanagari , also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal. It is written from left to right, lacks distinct letter cases, and is recognizable by a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the letters that links them together. Devanāgarī is the main script used to...
: शिक्षापत्री) is a text of two hundred and twelve verses, written in
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
by
Bhagwan SwaminarayanSwaminarayan , also known as Sahajanand Swami, is the central figure in a modern sect of Hinduism known as the Swaminarayan Faith, a form of Vaishnavism...
. The Shikshapatri is a key scripture to all followers of the
Swaminarayan faithSwaminarayan Hinduism, also known as the Swaminarayan faith or the Swaminarayan sect, is a modern tradition of Hinduism, in which followers offer devotion and worship Swaminarayan as the final manifestation of God...
and is considered the basis of the faith.
The Shikshapatri was written in
VadtalVadtal is a small village in the Kheda district of Gujarat, IndiaIt is a location of famous Bhagwan Swaminarayan's temple. "Gomti" is a name of beautiful lake in Vadtal....
on February 11 1826. It is a
dharmaThe term , is an Indian spiritual and religious term, that means one's righteous duty or any virtuous path in the common sense of the term. A Hindu's Dharma is affected by a person's age, class, occupation, and sex. In Indian languages it can be equivalent simply to "religion", depending on context...
text, providing detailed instructions on how to live.
The Gazeteer of the
Bombay PresidencyThe Bombay Presidency was a former province of British India. It was established in the 17th century as a trading post for the British East India Company, but later grew to encompass much of western and central India, as well as parts of post-partition Pakistan and the Arabian Peninsula.At its...
summarised the teachings of the Shiskshapatri as:
The book of precepts strictly prohibits the destruction of animal life; promiscuous intercourse with the other sex; use of animal food and intoxicant liquors and drugs on any occasion, suicide, theft and robbery; false accusation against a fellow man; blasphemy; company of atheists and heretics, and other practices which might counteract the effect of the founder's teaching.
The
Shikshapatri (
DevanagariDevanagari , also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal. It is written from left to right, lacks distinct letter cases, and is recognizable by a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the letters that links them together. Devanāgarī is the main script used to...
: शिक्षापत्री) is a text of two hundred and twelve verses, written in
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
by
Bhagwan SwaminarayanSwaminarayan , also known as Sahajanand Swami, is the central figure in a modern sect of Hinduism known as the Swaminarayan Faith, a form of Vaishnavism...
. The Shikshapatri is a key scripture to all followers of the
Swaminarayan faithSwaminarayan Hinduism, also known as the Swaminarayan faith or the Swaminarayan sect, is a modern tradition of Hinduism, in which followers offer devotion and worship Swaminarayan as the final manifestation of God...
and is considered the basis of the faith.
The Shikshapatri was written in
VadtalVadtal is a small village in the Kheda district of Gujarat, IndiaIt is a location of famous Bhagwan Swaminarayan's temple. "Gomti" is a name of beautiful lake in Vadtal....
on February 11 1826. It is a
dharmaThe term , is an Indian spiritual and religious term, that means one's righteous duty or any virtuous path in the common sense of the term. A Hindu's Dharma is affected by a person's age, class, occupation, and sex. In Indian languages it can be equivalent simply to "religion", depending on context...
text, providing detailed instructions on how to live.
Summary of teaching
The Gazeteer of the
Bombay PresidencyThe Bombay Presidency was a former province of British India. It was established in the 17th century as a trading post for the British East India Company, but later grew to encompass much of western and central India, as well as parts of post-partition Pakistan and the Arabian Peninsula.At its...
summarised the teachings of the Shiskshapatri as:
The book of precepts strictly prohibits the destruction of animal life; promiscuous intercourse with the other sex; use of animal food and intoxicant liquors and drugs on any occasion, suicide, theft and robbery; false accusation against a fellow man; blasphemy; company of atheists and heretics, and other practices which might counteract the effect of the founder's teaching.
Governor Sir John Malcolm
On February 26 1830 an historic meeting took place between Swaminarayan and Sir
John MalcolmSir John F. Malcolm was a Scottish soldier, statesman, and historian-Early Life:Born at Burnfoot, Dumfriesshire, Malcolm was the son of George Malcolm, a gentleman farmer of Eskdale and Burnfoot. Jock, as he was then known, was one of the four Malcolm brothers who attained knighthoods or...
, the then
GovernorA governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
of
BombayThe Bombay State was a former state of India, dissolved with the formation of Maharashtra and Gujarat states on May 1, 1960.-History:During British rule, portions of the western coast of India under direct British rule were part of the Bombay Presidency...
. At this meeting, Swaminarayan presented a Shikshapatri to Sir John Malcolm. This copy is now housed at the
Bodleian LibraryThe Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...
of the
University of OxfordThe University of Oxford , located in the UK city of Oxford, is the oldest surviving university in the English-speaking world and is regarded as one of the world's leading academic institutions. Although the exact date of foundation remains unclear, there is evidence of teaching there as far back...
.
Languages
Swaminarayan instructed
Nityanand SwamiNityanand Swami was a saint of the Swaminarayan Sampraday and a Swaminarayan paramhansa.-Biography:Nityanand Swami was born as Dinmani Sharma in Dantia, a town near Lucknow in 1754. He was born into a Brahmin family, his father was Vishnu Sharma and mother Virjadevi and had a brother named Govind...
to translate Shikshapatri from Sanskrit into
GujaratiGujarati is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family...
http://gopinathji.com/shikshapatri/00000.html. It has since been translated numerous times into other languages. It has been translated to Bengali, Gujarati
http://gopinathji.com/shikshapatri/00000.html, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Udiya, Urdu, Vraj, Afrikaans, Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Modern Hebrew, North Sotho, Portuguese, Russian, South Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Xhosa, and Zulu,
External links