The Vaghari community had its origin either in the hills or in the forest. Mostly they live in the outskirts of towns, villages and cities. They maintain themselves by fishing, bird hunting, stealing or by farming. But Sagram Vaghari had a peculiar type of business. He would search for dogs suitable to be trained as hounds. He always kept a good number of hounds, ready for sale and also a good number of dogs for training. To feed all these dogs he would hunt and fish.
His primary customers were rulers among whom the ruler of Limbdi State was his great paymaster as he was fond of hunting.
Once Bhagwan Shree Swaminarayan accompanied by saints and devotees was passing by the compound of the cottage of Sagram Vaghari. The compound had a thorny hedge all around it. Seeing the procession the dogs started barking. Sagram came out of his cottage and saw Shree Hari leading the procession. As he bowed down with respect Shree Hari stopped and inquired about his activities. He said: “My Lord, I train dogs into hounds. I train them to assist hunters in hunting. So first I train them here to pounce upon small animals and then on large ones. I sell such hounds to rulers who need them to protect their palaces or for hunting. This is how I earn my livelihood!”
To this Shree Hari replied: “So you kill animals to feed the dogs and then you sell hounds to kill animals! Oh! What great sins you are committing! In your next birth these dogs will be hunters and they will kill you.”“But my Lord, how can I maintain myself without this profession?” asked quizzed Vaghari.
“Give me some food grains,” said Shree Hari. Sagram Vaghari gave some food grains to Shree Hari and He returned it back asking him to put it in a jar.
Then blessing him Shree Hari said: “Henceforth your jar will be never exhausted even when you take any amount out of it! But you should give up this most cruel profession.”
Sagram Vaghari agreed and bowed down. The procession led by Shree Hari moved on.
This incident changed Sagram Vaghari and he gave up his cruel profession. He became a follower of the Swaminarayan Way of life. He started visiting temples and changed his attire to that of a follower.
The ruler of Limbdi State soon wanted more trained hounds to maintain his stock. Through a royal servant he sent a message for Sagram to present himself with some well-trained hounds. The royal messenger returned and said: “My Lord, Sagram Vaghari has stopped his business. Now he neither trains nor sells hounds as he has become religious and has adopted Swaminarayan Way of life.”
The ruler was surprised. He called for Sagram Vaghari. He was still more surprised to see a rosary in the hands of Sagram Vaghari.The ruler was curious to know about ‘Swaminarayan’ and so he sent a scholarly Brahmin – Shivram Vipra to find out all about Bhagwan Shree Swaminarayan.