Title
Bochāsanvāsī Akshar Purushottam Swāminārāyan Sansthā translates to (The) Bochasan-ite Imperishable Supreme Being, Lord from the first of Men, Establishment.
However, for modern and practical purposes, the title can be rendered in English as The Bochasan-ite Akshar-Purushottam Swaminarayan Establishment or The Akshar-Purushottam Swaminarayan Organization of Bochasan. The high Sanskrit formations of Akshar Purushottam Svāminārāyan, meaning Imperishable Supreme Being, Lord from the first of Men, understandably adorning references to God, can be left untranslated due to a cumulation of two reasons, the first that Akshar Purushottam Swāminārāyan is hardly taken in a literal manner, it is more so Indian terminology for God, God; the second that not even God, God is accurate, as Akshar Purushottam Svāminārāyan is much more contextually loaded than that, in terms of the history and the philosophy of BAPS and that which lead to it.
- nārāyaṇ (Son of the original Man) is the general component. It means God and is of Vaishnavite origin. Hinduism → Vaishnavism
- Svāmi-, meaning Lord, in this case and in most cases of a religious capacity (learned holy man, monk, spiritual preceptor), is just a further embellishment at a linguistic level, thus: Lord that is the Son of the original Man or Lord from the first of Men. However this specifically refers to the one Sahajanand Swami, believed to be God. Hinduism → Vaishnavism → Swaminarayanism
- Akshar Purushottam (Imperishable Supreme Being) is a specific deity and philosophy or interpretation of Swaminarayanism. This theology lead to a split in 1907, leading to BAPS.
- Though it must be said that Akshar Purushottam is in less need of being left untranslated, because unlike Svāminārāyaṇ, which is something unique unto itself, the philosophy of Akshar Puruṣottam really can be gleaned from the English rendering of Imperishable Supreme Being, with one modification. Up until now, Akshar Purushottam has been translated as Imperishable Supreme Being (un-hyphenated), but what is really meant is along the lines of Imperishable - Supreme Being (hyphenated). Imperishable is in fact not an adjective; instead the hyphen creates a pairing of two nouns: (the) Supreme Being paired with (the) Imperishable. This stems from the thrust of the BAPS doctrine, which is the unicity/pairing between the Supreme Being (Purushottam) and his Imperishable (Akshar, represented by the line of gurus, now at Pramukh Swami). Hence The Bochasan-ite Akshar-Purushottam Swaminarayan Establishment.
- Bochasan is a town in Gujarat, associated with that split.
Read more about this topic: Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha
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