More than 2,400 families joined a special online mahapuja to herald the New Year on 1 January 2022. The mahapuja was conducted from the shrines of BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, London, by the resident swamis and was streamed via a live webcast across the UK and Europe.
A mahapuja is a very special, ancient holy ceremony that involves making devotional offerings to the chanting of powerful Vedic mantras with the sentiments of reverence, adoration and gratitude to God.
The mahapuja was also held to mark the commencement of the year-long celebration of Pramukh Swami Maharaj’s centennial birth anniversary, launched during his
100th birth anniversary celebrations in December 2021.
The ceremony provided an opportunity for families to pay tribute to the inspirational life of Pramukh Swami Maharaj. The explanations of various components and rituals were narrated in English and Gujarati throughout the mahapuja, providing a truly interactive and spiritually enriching experience.
Families joined in the celebrations through a variety of additional activities, such as dressing in traditional Indian clothing and decorating their homes and ghar mandirs with rangolis, lamps as well as various other devotional offerings.
Dhara Bhatt, a young mother of two, participated in the mahapuja from Stuttgart, Germany. She shared, “What an uplifting way to bring in the new year! This mahapuja gave my family and many others an opportunity to celebrate the life of Pramukh Swami Maharaj and live by his principles of compassion and harmony by praying for others for the year ahead. And the detailed explanations [in the mahapuja] helped my children to really enjoy the various parts of the ceremony and get fully involved.”