next day on the banks of the River Gondali Abhaysinh Darbar of Ganod, a disciple of Gunatitanand Swami, later built a shrine at the spot of his final rites that is known as Akshar Deri. On 23 May 1934, despite severe financial difficulties, Shastriji Maharaj consecrated the murtis of Swaminarayan and Gunatitanand Swami in the central shrine of a new, three-shikar mandir built above the Akshar Deri, Multitudes of people from around the world visit Akshar Mandir each year and circumambulate Akshar Deri (perform pradakshina) seeking peace of mind and fulfillment of their auspicious desires, making it one of the most visited places of pilgrimage in the region. Gunatitanand Swami as Akshar Considerable dissent exists among various Swaminarayan groups regarding Gunatitanand Swami's status as Akshar, with BAPS being one of the foremost, though not only, groups propagating this principle as a foundation of their Akshar Purushottam philosophy, or Upasana. The Akshar Purushottam Upasana is the central theological tenet upon which the BAPS denomination of Swaminarayan Hinduism is based. Proponents of this philosophy believe that of the five eternal entities (Jiva, Ishwar, Maya, Brahman and Parabrahman), Akshar (Brahman) and Purushottam (Parabrahman) eternally transcend the illusion of maya. While both BAPS and certain sections of the dioceses of Ahmedabad and Vadtal accept Purushottam as God and the cause of all the avatars, the concept of Akshar has led to much debate and is one of the primary causes of the schism between the denominations. Yājñavalkya Smṛti was authorized as a sacred text by Swaminarayan and it contains the following proof-text of Akshar, explaining that, "If one does not know Akshar, then one’s oblations, sacrifices and austerities for many thousands of years in this world will come to an end; and when one departs from this world without knowing Akshar, one is miserable". The Vadtal and Ahmedabad dioceses believe this Akshar to be the divine abode of the supreme entity Purushottam. The BAPS denomination concurs that Akshar is the divine abode of Purushottam, but they further understand Akshar as "an eternally existing spiritual reality having two forms, the impersonal and the personal". The impersonal form is the divine abode of Purushottam while the personal form is described as the perfect devotee of Purushottam through whom this ultimate reality can be reached. Members of the BAPS branch support the ontology of Akshar through various accounts from Swaminarayan's time by pointing to the words of