ABSTRACT
Sahajanand Swami claimed a spiritual lineage within Vaishnava tradition that goes back to Ramanuja, who founded the philosophical school of 'modified non-dualism'. This chapter focuses on interviews with four acharyas and their disciples to establish a focal point for study of the transmission of religious traditions. According to tradition, Ramanuja appointed seventy-four of his disciples, both householders and ascetics, as preceptors to initiate followers into Vaishnavism and to spread visistadvaita philosophy. The spiritual genealogy of Srinivasacharya goes back to one of the seventy-four disciples of Ramanuja through Prativadi Bhayankararn Anna, one of the eight prominent families set apart by Mananalamanikal in fifteenth century. Acharya Tejendraprasadji Pande is preceptor of the Ahmedabad diocese of the Swaminarayan sect, a modern reform movement in Vaishnavism in Gujarat that traces its preceptor line back to Ramanuja. Pramukh Swami is preceptor and president of Bochasanwasi Shree Akshar Purushottam Sanstha, a Swaminarayan group that has grown out of a split with the Vadtal diocese in 1906.
