The grand 95th birthday celebration of H.H Pramukh Swami Maharaj was held in Sarangpur in the presence of a mammoth gathering of 200,000 devotees and well-wishers. The small village of Sarangpur hosted devotees from all parts of India and from countries across the globe including USA, UK, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa and the Middle East nations.
The three-hour programme from 5.00pm to 8.00pm comprised of a variety of devotional songs, traditional dances, dramas, video presentations and speeches by senior sadhus. The central theme of this year's celebration was based on 'Transcendence' - Swamishri's transcendent virtues and the transcendent experience that sadhus, devotees and well-wishers have had over the years in every interaction with him.
The senior sadhus recounted Pramukh Swami Maharaj's divinity and humility inspite of all his achievements - including having visited 17,500 villages and cities, sanctified 2,50,000 homes, written more than 7,50,000 letters, built 1200 mandirs and magnificent cultural complexes like ‘Swaminarayan Akshardham’, and initiated 950 educated youths into sadhus.
Many national and international speakers spoke about the saintly personality and social services performed by Pramukh Swami Maharaj. They elaborated on Pramukh Swami’s virtues of transcendence over the dualities of praise and insult, happiness and pain, success and failure.
The celebration also saw the inauguration of the Gujarati Translation of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam's book ‘Transcendence’, named ‘Paratpar’ in Gujarati.
The high point of the celebration programme was the personal presence of Pramukh Swami Maharaj who blessed the entire congregation with his presence.
The celebrations were enjoyed by the hundreds of thousands gathered in Sarangpur on this occasion and by many others through live telecast and live webcast.