In the history of the Shree Swaminarayan Sampraday, the devotee who put the village of Bochasan on the map was patidar bhaktraj Shree Kashidas Patel. Every member of his family was deeply touched by spirituality. His father, Kandasbhai, and his mother, were devoted to serving sadhus, yet they possessed the wisdom to distinguish between the true and the false.
When Bhagwan Shree Swaminarayan visited Bochasan in the form Nilkanth Varni, Kandasbhai was organizing a mass feast (Chorashi) for Brahmins. Maharaj dined on milk and rice at their home, and it was at that very moment that the image of Varni was deeply imprinted in the heart of the young Kashidas. As time passed, Maharaj became the head of the Uddhav Sampraday, and Kashidas took over the family responsibilities.
During a festival in Vadtal, Kashidas prayed to Maharaj to visit Bochasan. Maharaj accepted the invitation and arrived in the village. Upon visiting Kashidas’s farm, Maharaj commanded him to remove the indigo vats used for dyeing. Being a faithful devotee who followed every word without hesitation, Kashidas immediately cleared the vats and planted sugarcane as per Maharaj’s wish. When the harvest was ready, he invited Maharaj back, and Maharaj celebrated a grand Ras-Utsav (juice festival) at the farm. It is said that on that day, divine vimans (aircraft) from Akshardham descended upon the fields of Kashidas and thus Akshar-mukto also partook in the prasad of Maharaj. To this day, that field is known as the “Vimaniya Khetar” (The Field of Divine Aircrafts). The bond between Kashidas and Maharaj was so strong that when a fire once broke out at Kashidas’s home, Maharaj, while physically sitting in Gadhada, divinely appeared and extinguished the flames with His own hands.
Later in life, a business partner falsely accused Kashidas of fraud, leading to a prison sentence, but Maharaj protected him throughout the ordeal. In another instance, after experiencing the consequences of disobeying Maharaj’s advice regarding the timing of his children’s weddings, Kashidas spent the rest of his life following every agyna (command) of Maharaj, no matter how small. Such was the humility of Kashidas.