India Summer 2019

This summer I had the opportunity attend the India Trip through my socio-religious organization, B.A.P.S. This was a 5 week immersive cultural trip with 56 girls from all across North America and Canada. In North India we visited the magnificent BAPS Dehli Akshardham, in Chappaiya we visited Bhagwan Swaminarayan’s janmasthan (birthplace), and visited Ram Bhagwan’s janmasthan in Ayodhya. We visited over 15 mandirs (Hindu temples) in Gujarat and learned more about the history of BAPS and did abhyas(study) of our guru’s lives through goshtis (group discussions). In Sarangpur we attended Brahmvidyani College for 5 days to learn from scholarly sadhus (monks) about our sampraday’s core beliefs. For 10 days we had amazing labh of Pujya Mahant Swami Maharaj (spiritual leader) in Bochasan and Atladra. We then traveled to South India for 10 days to visit the mandirs that Nilkanth Varni Maharaj (God) stayed at/ did darshan of on His yatra of 11 years (pilgrimage). We stayed in Munnar for 2 days amongst the beautiful mountains and tea farms. We went to Alappuzha, Thiruvananthapuram, Kanyakumari (southern most tip of India), Nanguneri, Rameswaram, Madurai, Srinagam, Thanjavur, Pondicherry, and Mahabalipuram. I am so eternally grateful to Maharaj and Swami and BAPS for giving me this once in a lifetime opportunity to learn about BAPS and India’s History along with creating such amazing friendships.