Shastri Yagnapurushdas

Shastriji Maharaj
Shastriji Maharaj, ordained Shastri Yagnapurushdas
Religion	Hinduism
Personal
Born	Dungar Patel (1865-01-31)January 31, 1865 Mahelav, Gujarat, British India
Died	10 May 1951(1951-05-10) (aged 86) Sarangpur, Gujarat, India
Guru	Bhagatji Maharaj, Vignananand Swami, Jaga Swami
Disciple(s)	Yogiji Maharaj Pramukh Swami Maharaj
Honors	Founder of Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha

Shastriji Maharaj (Gujarati: શાસ્ત્રીજી મહારાજ) (31 January 1865 – 10 May 1951), born Dungar Patel and ordained Shastri Yagnapurushdas, was a sadhu of the Swaminarayan Sampraday and was later accepted as the third spiritual successor of Swaminarayan and founder of the BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha. Born in a family of farmers in central Gujarat, India, he became a sadhu within the Vadtal diocese of the Swaminarayan Sampraday at the age of 17 where he was given the name Yagnapurushdas Swami. The prefix Shastri was later added in recognition of his eminent scholarship in Sanskrit and the Hindu scriptures. He established BAPS after a doctrinal split from the Vadtal diocese of the Swaminarayan Sampradaya.

Shastriji Maharaj is credited with establishing BAPS on 5 June 1907 CE in Bochasan, Gujarat to propagate the Akshar-Purushottam Upasana (philosophy), which, he explained, had been revealed by Swaminarayan. A staunch proponent of this philosophy, he consecrated the sacred images of Swaminarayan (as a manifestation of Purushottam) and Gunatitanand Swami (as a manifestation of Akshar) in the central shrines of major mandirs in the towns of Bochasan, Sarangpur, Atladra, Gondal, and Gadhada in Gujarat, India.

In the early 1950s, having successfully laid the foundations of BAPS, he appointed Pramukh Swami Maharaj as its administrative head to serve under Yogiji Maharaj, whom he revealed as the 4th spiritual successor to Swaminarayan.

Dungar Patel was born on 31 January 1865 in Mahelav into a deeply religious family. His parents, Dhoribhai and Hetba Patel had 4 other children, Mathurbhai, Laldas, Sonaba and Raliatben, of which Dungar was the youngest. Various anecdotes of Shastriji Maharaj’s childhood demonstrate his early spiritual inclination and intellectual prowess. These include his preference for building mandirs out of sand while other children his age played with toys, his observance of religious fasts from a young age and an impromptu recital of the Mahabharata to the entire village. He first received formal education at the village school under the tutelage of Gangaram Mehta of Alindra. In addition to this, Dungar often interacted with sadhus at the Swaminarayan temple in Mahelav and began studying the Bhagavad Gita and other Hindu scriptures under them. This initial education would be further enhanced under Vignananand Swami an illustrious and eminent sadhu who had been initiated by Swaminarayan.