Lord Swaminarayan writing the Shikshapatri

The Shikshapatri ( gu, શિક્ષાપત્રી,

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system), based on the ...

: (शिक्षापत्री) is a religious text consisting of two hundred and twelve verses, written in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

by Swaminarayan. The Shikhapatri is believed to have been written in the current form in Sanskrit by Satanand Swami, who incorporated into and compiled the scripture known as Satsangi Jivan. The Shikshapatri is a key scripture to all followers of the

Swaminarayan Sampradaya The Swaminarayan Sampradaya, also known as Swaminarayan Hinduism and Swaminarayan movement, is a Hindu Vaishnava sampradaya rooted in Ramanuja's Vishishtadvaita, characterized by the worship of its charismatic founder Sahajanand Swami, ...

and is considered the basis of the sect. The Shikshapatri was written in

Vadtal Vadtal is located in the Kheda district of Gujarat, India. It is the pilgrim centre of Swaminarayan Sampraday and the headquarter of Swaminarayan's temple. Gomati is a holy lake in Vadtal. In 2011, ONGC announced that it would begin drilling ...

on (Maha Sud 5, 1882 VS) 11 February 1826. It is a

dharma Dharma (; sa, धर्म, dharma, ; pi, dhamma, italic=yes) is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. Although there is no direct single-word translation for '' ...

text, providing detailed instructions on how to live a spiritually uplifting life.

Summary of teaching

The

Gazetteer A gazetteer is a geographical index or directory used in conjunction with a map or atlas.Aurousseau, 61. It typically contains information concerning the geographical makeup, social statistics and physical features of a country, region, or con ...

of the

Bombay Presidency The Bombay Presidency or Bombay Province, also called Bombay and Sind (1843–1936), was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India, with its capital in the city that came up over the seven islands of Bombay. The first mainl ...

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. Page 230

Governor Sir John Malcolm

On 26 February 1830,At Rajkot a historic meeting took place between Swaminarayan and Sir

John Malcolm Major-General Sir John Malcolm GCB, KLS (2 May 1769 – 30 May 1833) was a Scottish soldier, diplomat, East India Company administrator, statesman, and historian. Early life Sir John Malcolm was born in 1769, one of seventeen children of ...

, the then

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

. At this meeting,

Lord Swaminarayan Swaminarayan (IAST: ', 3 April 1781 – 1 June 1830), also known as Sahajanand Swami, was a yogi and Asceticism, ascetic, who is believed by followers to be a manifestation of God Krishna, or as the highest Theophany, manifestation of ...

presented a copy of the Shikshapatri to Sir John Malcolm. This copy is now housed at the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the sec ...

of the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. Page 57

Languages

Swaminarayan instructed Nityanand Swami to translate Shikshapatri from Sanskrit into

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...

. It has since been translated numerous times into other languages. It has been translated to Bengali, Gujarati, 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.https://www.swaminarayan.faith/scriptures/ebooks Swaminarayan's Shikshapatri in Various Languages

Notes

External links

Digital Shikshapatri
Provides a wide variety of online resources which set the Shikshapatri in its historical, cultural and religious context - The oldest copy of the Shikshapatri in the world today is shown, in digital form.
MS. Ind. Inst. Sansk. 72
Images available in Digital Bodleian {{Swaminarayan Sampraday Hindu texts Swaminarayan Sampradaya