BAPS's 'Eiffel Tower' controversy: Rule to stay away from women in the sect, not to be removed; Sanatani said - Gujarat has put monks on its heads

100 sadhus of Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, a resident of Bochasan of Gujarat, went for a walk on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower. Before reaching there, the organization requested the Eiffel Tower management to keep women staff away. Because it comes to the principle of the sadhus of the Swaminarayan sect that they should keep a distance from women. After all, why is there such a rule in this sect? Why is the French media calling the BAPS organization an organization close to Modi? We will know in the Gujarat Explainer... Question 1: What is the whole incident and how did the controversy take place? Answer: There is a small village 30 kilometers away from Paris, the capital of France. The name is Boucy St. Georges. Here the temple of BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha was built. Its inauguration ceremony is being held from September 2 to September 14. The Pranapratishtha Vidhi of the temple took place on September 6. The day before the Pran Pratishtha Vidhi, on Saturday, September 5, there was a Nagar Yatra and a Jal Yatra. The urns of the water journey were placed in a luxurious glass cruise. The devotees also sat in it. The water journey started from the Seine River flowing near the Eiffel Tower. Before that, the city journey started. Before all these events took place, 100 monks came to see the Eiffel Tower in the morning. The Eiffel Tower opens at 9:30 a.m. Mahant Swami Maharaj was also going to see the Eiffel Tower, so the fitness of the devotees was high. The BAPS organization had sent a request to the Eiffel Tower management that the female staff should be removed as the spiritual head of our organization was coming. The Eiffel Tower management agreed to him and instructed the female staff to leave their point for a while and not to pass through the place where the monks were supposed to pass. After this instruction, the staff of the Eiffel Tower got angry. Because there is no such culture in France. No one tolerates the insult of women there. In support of the female staff of Paris, the male staff announced the strike. The incident took place on the 5th. On the 6th, it was a Sunday, so there were more tourists. So the staff closed the Eiffel Tower for one day on Monday, September 7. The media from all over the world noted that the tower, where 15 to 25 thousand tourists go daily, remained closed for such reasons. Of course, the statements of the BAPS organization and the Eiffel Tower management came. Question 2: Why did two different statements come after the controversy? Answer: After the controversy, the Eiffel Tower Operating Company (SETE) issued a letter in French. It was written that the Hindu organization had demanded that the women employees be invisible (go somewhere farther) during the visit of its spiritual head to the Eiffel Tower. So that the sadhus were not disturbed as per the tradition of the sect. The Eiffel Tower Operating Company agreed and the staff was instructed to leave their place and move away. In its place, a male staff should be deployed. Care has to be taken to ensure that women employees do not pass through the place through which the sadhus are going to pass. The company writes in the letter - We accepted the Hindu organization's request and instructed the staff. But now we understand that it was an insult to women and it was our mistake to accept the words of the Hindu organization. The punishment that the French government will give us is acceptable. On the other hand, in a statement issued by the BAPS organization in Paris, it is written that we had requested the management that our number is around 100. Since there are a large number of tourists, we should be given entry at the beginning. We have not talked about the removal of women. The company says differently, BAPS says something different. Now it is a separate debate as to which of the two is true. On this issue, we asked Gyanvatsal Swami why the staff of the Eiffel Tower went on strike if there was no such demand. In response, he said, "We have never given what we had to say." Needless to say... But this incident has escalated to such an extent that not only the media, including France, Al-Jazeera, BBC, The New York Times, have condemned the whole incident and favored women. The most protest is taking place in France. Question 3: Why is this incident being protested in France? Answer: There is no discrimination between women and men in France. Everyone is equal. The French government has created a ministry - Equality Between Women and Men. The women's minister of this ministry, Arora Berge, is 39 years old. She has also strongly opposed this. The people of France have never seen that women have been asked to leave because of a spiritual guru. The French media is writing a lot and because of this, not only the BAPS has been defamed in France, but India is also being defamed. The Indian government does not want to get involved in all this, so the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Randhir Jaiswal, clarified in a sentence that we are aware of the opening of the BAPS temple in Paris. If it is about the Eiffel Tower controversy, then the BAPS organization and the Eiffel Tower management should know. This is a dispute between two organizations. In short, Naro Va, Kunjro Va... It did. This controversy could affect the relations between India and France. The leaders of France are infuriated. It is a different matter that Modi's friend French President Emmanuel Macron is still silent. Macron may not want to get involved in this controversy, because when it comes to women's respect, he is likely to get trapped. Because he married his mother instead of marrying his school-going girlfriend, he will not talk about women's respect. Secondly, Macron is also silent because of his relations with India, especially Modi. When Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir in Paris, he said in an online address that through BAPS, temples in different countries are consecrated. At the same time, the ancient idea of India and the human values also go together. And the idea of India says, समानम् मनान: सहाचितमेशां i.e., our minds should be equal, let our hearts be connected. In this sentence, the Prime Minister has combined the thoughts of BAPS and India. Listen to this video of PM Modi... France has the Presidential elections in 2027 next year. (In 2027, there are elections in Gujarat too!!) Two candidates have been announced for the Presidential election in France. One is Marine Le Pen, the leader of France's opposition party National Rally, and the other is former Prime Minister Gabriel Atal. Both these candidates have also strongly criticized the demand to remove female staff. Now imagine, if one of them becomes president next year, what will be the relationship with India? Diane Dvoin, a female employee of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, told Reuters that during a visit to this Hindu organization, women were told to leave their workplaces. So men can be deployed. After this incident, the management apologized to the employees. This caused insults to the employees, especially the female employees. We felt very bad. The weekend went into tension. Because this has never happened to us in our life. So the employees decided to call a meeting. Diane Devine adds, "The first objective was to start a dialogue with the management. And the second objective was to ensure that women in the company do not be treated like this again. On the 7th, we went on strike, in the evening the management officials met us and then we ended the strike on the next day. Question 4: Why does the French media consider BAPS to be close to Modi? Answer: Most of the French media have written that the BAPS organization is close to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. In particular, the France-24 newspaper has written that the BAPS organization is close to the leader of the conservative, Hindu nationalist party, Narendra Modi. Not only the French media, the American newspaper New York Times has even written that the BAPS organization is associated with Narendra Modi. Modi participates in many of its events. The organization was established in the 18th century and that too in Modi's home state Gujarat. There are occasions when Narendra Modi has attended many programs of the BAPS organization. The first BAPS Swaminarayan temple in the Middle East was built in Abu Dhabi. Modi went to Abu Dhabi on February 14, 2024 to inaugurate it. The Paris temple was inaugurated online. Apart from this, many events are also associated with this institution of Narendra Modi. Question 5: What do the rules of the Shiksha Patra say? Answer: Before knowing the rules, know a little about the Swaminarayan sect. Born in 1781 in the village of Chhapaiya in Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh, Ghanshyam Pandey set out on a tour of India in 1792 at the age of 11. In search of spirituality. He settled in Gujarat in 1799, 7 years after the start of the journey. His guru Ramanand Swami initiated him and named him Sahajanand Swami. At that time, Ramanand Swami was the head of the Uddhav sect. Ramanand Swami handed over the leadership of the Uddhav sect to Sahajanand Swami before his death in 1802. He took over the leadership of the Uddhav sect. Sahajanand Swami held a meeting and gave the Swaminarayan mantra in it. From then on, he started to be identified with Bhagwan Swaminarayan and the Uddhav sect was called Swaminarayan Sampradaya. During his lifetime, Sahajanand Swami built temples at 6 places in Gujarat. Ahmedabad, Vadtal, Gadhada, Junagadh, Bhuj and Dholera. Bhagwan Swaminarayan has written a book of 212 verses showing the rules of the sect, which is called 'Shikshapatri'. In this Shikshapatra, there are some rules for the brahmacharya sadhu to stay away from women. Prabhu Swami of Surat Vadtal Swaminarayan Mandir said that the ladies staff should be instructed to stay away from the places where the saints reside. Otherwise, if there is only a walk and there is talk of removing the ladies staff in this way, then it is excessive. In the sect, Lord Swaminarayan himself has already imposed this limit. Brahmacharis have to walk at a distance of one bow from women, i.e., four feet apart. In earlier times, there were no rulers, so the bow was measured. If there was a crowd, then walk in such a way that the brahmachari sadhu did not touch the women. In the Swaminarayan sect, women encourage their son to become a monk. Then the son will not be able to go to his mother after he becomes a sadhu. The Swaminarayan sect is the only one that has independent temples for women. Especially in villages. No man can go there. Just as a man is called a sadhu, there are also sadhvis in the Swaminarayan sect. He worships and preaches in the temple. A man is forbidden to go to his home after becoming a sadhu, but the sadhvi is allowed to go to his own house. Because he is a slave. Dr. Kaushik Choudhary, the author of the book 'Fake Narayan-Sahajanand', a dental surgeon and a strong Sanatani, has a different opinion. He says that in earlier times, sages had wives. Therefore, there was no such thing as hiding women in Sanatan Dharma. In Buddhism and Jainism too, celibates, ascetics were there before and still exist today. These monks of Jain and Buddhism themselves used to stay away from women. It was never said that if we come, we should hide the women. The sadhus of BAPS in Gujarat have been inculcated in a wrong habit. Dr. Kaushik Choudhary says, "I have seen such controversies in Gujarat itself that if the sadhus of the Swaminarayan sect go home to take action, then they should instruct that mothers, daughters, sisters and wives should not be present in the house. This is a clear violation of the equality of men and women in our Constitution. In the Eiffel Tower controversy, I believe that the people there are so conscious that even men raised their voices for women's rights. It is our mistake that we have not raised our voice till date. We have made the sadhus suffer. In fact, this is hypocrisy. Remove women for the sake of a 92-year-old spiritual leader. Hide it. It should not be like that. Hinduism is not like that. In fact, Swaminarayan is not a Hindu religion at all. Question 6: Why did this institution start with Bochasan? Answer: Bochasan is a village in Anand district of Gujarat. The Swaminarayan Sampradaya which started from here was known as Bochasanvasi Shri Aksharpurushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha. Its abbreviated name is BAPS. It was established on 5th June 1907 by Shastriji Maharaj. Shastriji Maharaj was in Vadtal and was known there for his discourses on Akshar Purushottam. But his opponents were many. Due to protests, he left Vadtal and settled in the village of Bochasan, 27 kilometers away. Here he separated from Vadtal and formed a new branch of the Swaminarayan Sampradaya, BAPS. Starting with Bochasan, it has the same name - Bochasanvasi. The first temple of BAPS was built in Bochasan. Then in 1916, the second temple was built in Sarangpur. Today there are more than 1300 temples of BAPS. There are 1100 temples in India itself. Its first temple in America was built in New York City in 1971. Now there are 108 temples in America alone. The former head of this institution was Pramukh Swami Maharaj. Now the sixth head is Mahant Swami Maharaj. Question 7: Have there been controversies related to women in the past as well? Answer: Although there have been many controversies, there have been two major controversies.