Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This Sunday I will be joining members of my community at the mandir in Rosehill to pay tribute to a great man, His Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj, who passed away earlier this year. The people who celebrate at the mandir in Rosehill are members of the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Sanstha faith, which I am fortunately allowed to refer to as BAPS, as they do. Thank goodness for that, for all concerned! They are an extraordinary community who live a life of faith as established by Bhagwan Swaminarayan when he established the faith in the 18th century. It is a spiritual way of life that considers the religious tenets of devotion to God, spiritual knowledge and detachment as those that lead one to becoming an ideal devotee of the faith. They work tirelessly in their community for the good of others, and we are very lucky in Parramatta to have them.

His Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj was the guru there for 45 years. He was born in 1921 into a humble farmers family and succeeded the spiritual leader Yogiji Maharaj in 1971 to become the spiritual leader. Since that time, he has been much loved and known for his humility and wisdom around the world. He has created and consecrated some 1,100 mandirs around the world, including, of course, one in Rosehill. Originally a pie factory, the building was bought by the Swaminarayan community in 2000, where they began to worship. It was re-consecrated as a beautifully redesigned building, still with the structure of the pie factory, in February 2014. They were very lucky—and we were all lucky in Parramatta—to have his Holiness visit Australia three times: in 1984, 1996 and 2002. There are now five mandirs in Australia: Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide. All are wonderful communities that follow the teachings of extraordinary leaders.

I am really looking forward to joining the community on Sunday to commemorate the life of this great leader. It is a wonderful community. They have lost a great leader, but they miss him because of his greatness. I look forward to celebrating his life with them on Sunday.