primary stress at the shakha level is on
forming personal relationships with
other members, as a way to develop loy-
alty to the organization. Each shakha, or
local unit, holds a daily meeting.
Activities include an opening ceremony
in which the organization’s saffron ban-
ner is raised; traditional games or exer-
cises, including a martial drill; and a dis-
cussion period in which RSSideals can
be disseminated and propagated.
Svayamvara
(“self-choice”) In Hindu mythology, a
form of marriage in which the bride
would choose the groom she wanted,
indicating her choice by placing her gar-
land around his neck. In the stories in
which a svayamvara occurs, the bride-
to-be is usually of royal lineage, as are
her suitors, so the bride’s choice was an
exercise fraught with potential political
consequences. One famous mythic
svayamvara was that of Nala and
Damayanti, in which Damayanti prefers
Nala even to the gods who have come as
suitors. This story also illustrates the
dangers of such a choice, when an
unhappy suitor cursed the couple to
endure separation and privation.
Swami Malai
Temple and sacred site (tirtha) on a hill
in the Tanjoredistrict of Tamil Nadu,
just outside the temple-town of
Kumbhakonam. Swami Malai is part of
the network of six temples in Tamil
Nadu built to honor Murugan, a hill
deitywho has been assimilated into the
larger pantheon as a form of the god
Skanda, the son of Shiva. Five of these
temples have been definitively identi-
fied, and each is associated with a par-
ticular region, a particular ecosystem,
and a particular incident in Murugan’s
mythic career. In the case of Swami
Malai, it is said to be where he taught the
meaning of the sacred syllable (Om) to
his father Shiva, and thus presents him
in the aspect of a teacher, which is one of
his identifying features in Shaiva
Siddhanta(a series of fourteen texts, all
completed by the fourteenth century
C.E., which reinterpret the ideas about
Shiva found in Nayanar devotional
poetry).The sixth of these temples is said
to be every other shrine to Murugan in
Tamil Nadu. This belief seems to stress
Murugan’s presence throughout Tamil
Nadu and sacrilize the entire landscape,
giving mythic significance to every
Murugan temple, no matter how small.
The cult of Murugan is thus a symbolic
vehicle for Tamil pride and identity, and
since the number six has connotations
of completeness—as in the six direc-
tions, or the six chakrasin the subtle
body—it also suggests that nothing out-
side is needed. For further information
see Fred Clothey, “Pilgrimage Centers in
the Tamil Cultus of Murukan,” in the
Journal of the American Academy of
Religion,Vol. 40, No. 1, 1972.Swaminarayan Sect
Modern religious community devoted to
the god Vishnu; its practice is based on
the life and teachings of Sahajananda
Swami (1781–1830), who was born near
the sacred city of Ayodhyain eastern
India but spent much of his life in the
western Indian state of Gujarat.
Sahajananda took initiation as an
asceticand soon became a mahant, or
ascetic leader. His followers revered him
first as a religious preceptor (guru), and
later as a partial incarnation of the god
Krishnahimself. They believed that
manifestations of the god Vishnu, such
as Krishna, are born on earth in times of
extreme trouble. It was in this latter
aspect that he was given the name
Swaminarayan (“Lord Narayan”), and
his followers believed that he was the
highest manifestation of God in human
form. The Swaminarayan sect has sev-
eral million lay devotees (bhakta), most
of whom are affluent Gujarati mer-
chants. In keeping with the commu-
nity’s ascetic roots, however, its most
important figures are the ascetics who
run the organization and who serve as
teachers and advisers to them. For furtherSvayamvara