The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2390 page)

 
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(Skt., ‘owner’, ‘master’). Title of respect for a holy man or teacher.

 
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Svaminarayan Movement
.

Founded by a high-caste
brahman
, Sahaj
nanda Swami, known as Lord Svaminarayan, in Gujarat, India, in the early 19th cent. Since then there has been considerable segmentation. A follower of the
Vai
ava
teacher
R
m
nuja
, Svaminarayan made qualified monism a fundamental precept and developed his movement in the
bhakti
tradition of devotional worship. Svaminarayan is regarded as an
avat
ra
of
Vi
u
who took on an earthly, human form in order to bring salvation to his followers. The movement spread from India to Britain in the 1950s, to become one of the largest Indian religions in that country. In 1995, it opened a large temple in Neasden (London), to be a centre for pilgrimage. Built at great expense, it revived skills of temple-carving and traditional decoration.