Since childhood I have always believed that we have a magnificent religion; but back then most youths were just told to follow and never encouraged to ask questions about our Sampraday. I asked, and when I didn’t get a satisfactory answer I searched, unfortunately there were not many resources in English. I loved singing, so at first I would just re-write a few kirtans in English that my mother would sing to me, after which I would try and derive the deeper meaning. This helped me gain understanding and I became more and more passionate and eager to learn and share. I was awarded a Millennium Citizen Grant for this first publication as I took my first significant step in making religion more accessible to people in the UK.

Since my first project there had been so much more material available in English and easily accessible on the Internet. By now role-models were starting to understand the need to logically explain our faith to us. However, I found it troubling that culturally, we shy away from discussing ‘moksha’ the 4th purusharth (ultimate goals of mankind). This led me to self-teach myself Gujarati to be able to read and understand our Shastra’s better, all along I kept thinking about the realities of reaching Akshardham. This motivated me to use my skills of transliterating to revive our traditional kirtans, focusing on kirtans with a deep philosophical meaning, kirtans that are not usually sung because they are sometimes sad and very ‘in your face’ about what will happen to us at the time of death.

I thought that this project needed expansion to be more than another kirtan book; the challenge of making music that was traditional as well as appealing and using deep and meaningful lyrics melodiously was an awesome experience!

Two years on from the book and album, positive feedback was continuously flowing in; this album was inspired by requests from listeners for more but with details about each kirtan and so after my grandfather’s demise, this album became a tribute to him.

Once again the feedback was overwhelming, and with progressive technology, the way forward was to provide music ‘on-the-go’.

To celebrate and stay in line with the latest trends, was the motivation behind this latest project. With over 3000 users of the mobile App, comments on crashes and other issues were flowing in as technology has advanced at lightning speed. People can now download the website as an app on their devices and the aim is to provide more than just music ‘on-the-go’. With added features of a sing-along karaoke style kirtan section and ‘Marg Mantra’ to share regular bite-sized motivational mottos to strengthen your smile and stay connected.

I am elated to say that I continue to get enthusiastic feedback after so many years; people message with fabulous ideas and moving stories of how AKSHARDHAM NO MARG has helped them during difficult life-changing situations. Each message inspires me in ways you can’t even imagine. This website will provide a platform for me to be able to better connect and share content with users. I have exciting projects on the way….watch this space!