ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on Shastri Narayanswarupdas Swami (Pramukh Swami) who was a guru and pastoral counselor and analyzes the elements of the shared religious and theological system that provide the context for religious counseling in Swaminarayan Hinduism. Shastri Narayanswarupdas Swami is the spiritual and administrative leader of the Akshar Purushottam Sanstha, a twentieth-century movement of Swaminarayan Hinduism that separated from the parent group in 1906. A constant stream of people come to Pramukh Swami for advice, and he gives individual advice on the naming of children, marriage and divorce, career decisions, business decisions, as well as on 'spiritual' matters with answers to questions of theology and discipline. The main function of the advice and the counsel in personal affairs seems to be to give the follower the ability to make a decision with confidence in circumstances where the outcomes of any possible decision are unclear.