Swaminarayan (Sahajānanda Swami)

Ghanaśyāma Pāṇḍe, born at Chhapaiya in present Uttar Pradesh, left home as a youth named Nīlkaṇṭh on a long pilgrimage across India before settling in Gujarat, where he joined the Uddhava sampradāya under Rāmānanda Swami and, on succeeding him, took the name Sahajānanda Swami and became known as Swaminarayan. He led a Vaiṣṇava devotional movement teaching worship of Kṛṣṇa/Nārāyaṇa, strict ethical discipline (non-violence, sobriety, sexual restraint), and a measure of social reform, and built temples across Gujarat. His teachings are recorded in the 'Vacanāmṛt' and the code of conduct 'Śikṣāpatrī.' The tradition reads its theology within a broadly Viśiṣṭādvaita-aligned bhakti Vedānta. He died at Gadhada in Gujarat in 1830, and the movement he founded (including the modern BAPS denomination) remains large and active. The tradition's veneration of him as a manifestation of the supreme God (Puruṣottama) is its own devotional position.