Gujarat: Controversial Lord Hanuman murals removed from Botad temple by Swaminarayan sect

The Swaminarayan sect removed two controversial murals on Lord Hanuman installed on the pedestal of a giant statue of the deity on the campus of a temple in Gujarat on early Tuesday. Considering the uproar over the issue, the ‘Vadtal Gadi’ branch of the Swaminarayan sect, which manages the Hanuman temple at Salangpur in Botad district, on Monday announced the removal of the controversial murals. Talking to the media, the temple trustee said that two controversial murals in which the revered God (Lord Hanuman) is shown as a devotee of Sahajanand Swami, were removed and replaced with other murals. Temple authorities also shared photographs of the replaced murals. The Swaminarayan sect, with several factions, refers to Sahajanand Swami (1781-1830) as Lord Swaminarayan. A few months ago, the temple management installed a 54-foot statue of Lord Hanuman on the temple premises in Salangpur. The wall of its pedestal is covered with murals. In one mural, Lord Hanuman is shown kneeling before Sahajanand Swami, while in another, the deity is depicted as standing with folded hands in front of the parents of Swami. Hindu religious leaders have been demanding the removal of these murals for over a week and some of them have threatened “action”. They alleged the Swaminarayan sect is trying to project Swaminarayan as a supreme God above other Hindu deities. In a meeting of Hindu seers held at Shivananda Ashram in Ahmedabad on Monday evening, it was agreed that the temple management would remove the murals before sunrise on Tuesday. Meanwhile, prominent Hindu seers from Gujarat and other parts of the country met in Limbdi town in Surendranagar district on Tuesday. They claimed the issue is much bigger than these murals. During the meeting, the seers demanded that the Swaminarayan sect remove all the references in their religious texts where Hindu Gods were wrongly depicted, one of the attendees said.