Among the countless householder devotees of Bhagwan Shree Swaminarayan, Sura Khachar was the only devotee whom Maharaj Himself accepted as His “Sakha Bhakt” (friend-devotee). Many episodes are recorded in the Swaminarayan Samparady where Maharaj sat in a somber mood, but Sura Khachar would arrive and spread waves of joy through his humor.
Sura Khachar was the chief of the two villages, Loya and Nagadka. His wife’s name was Shantabai, his son was Natha Khachar, and his daughter was Valu. Sura Khachar had a large physique, a humorous nature, was heroic in Dharma, complete in vairagya, and overflowing with bhakti.
In Sura Khachar’s Darbar in Loya, Maharaj delivered eighteen Vachanamruts. Maharaj celebrated a unique and unparalleled Shakotsav in this Darbar using twelve maunds of ghee and sixty maunds of eggplants. The first Vachanamrut of Loya bears witness to the fact that there was a designated place for the Paramhans in this Darbar. Through various divine lilas such as the sabha during the lunar eclipse, the performance by the acrobat, shakotsav, and rangotsav, Sura Khachar’s Darbar remained vibrant with devotion. Due to Sura Khachar’s spirit of surrender (sharanagati), the lilas of Loya Dham have been written in every scripture of the Sampraday.
When Sura Khachar entered a silent sabha where Maharaj sat appearing dejected, he would spread heaps of laughter with his frankness, and the atmosphere of the sabha would immensely lighted. As soon as Sura Khachar began to speak, Maharaj would put His handkerchief to His lotus-like face to mask His smile. Sura Khachar would make the devotees laugh until their stomachs ached; yet, he remained firm in his niyams and was a master over his senses.
While in Jasdan for work, he remained unshaken even when a woman approached him in solitude. When he returned directly to Gadhpur, Maharaj was so pleased that He called him the “Conqueror of the Fort of Senses” and gifted him a sword with a golden hilt. Upon receiving a letter from Maharaj, Sura Khachar renounced all worldly desires and embraced the life of a paramhans, but returned to Loya upon Maharaj’s command. After returning to Loya, he took a vow of celibacy at the age of twenty-six and observed lifelong unbroken brahmacharya. It is for this reason that the sadhus and Paramhanso resided in his Darbar. It is for this reason that Maharaj Himself celebrated the Shakotsav there. It is for this reason that it is forever etched in the Vachanamruts of Loya that Bhagwan Shree Swaminarayan “was presiding in the Darbar of Sura Khachar.”