ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the program of training that prepares modern sadhus for leadership in a successful transnational Hindu community. It traces the growth in the number of young men 'renouncing the world' to take up lives as sadhu religious specialists during the second half of twentieth century. The chapter describes the program of a formal Swaminarayan Sadhu Training School - the Sadhak Ashram at Sarangpur in Gujarat, India - that was established in 1981. Swaminarayan Hinduism is one of the fastest-growing, regional-linguistic based Hindu sects both in India and abroad in England and the United States. Narayanswarupdas Swami is the spiritual and administrative leader of Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Sanstha, and his career highlights dynamics of rapid change in Swaminarayan Hinduism. Sadhaks are instructed to concentrate on the regular discourses and on service in temple. Parshads and sadhus reside together in the ashram. The rest of their lives are public; they live together and their personal affairs are open books.
