Several of you have written to us regarding the grand opening of Canada’s Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha Shri Swaminarayan Mandir (that was fun to type!). The pictures, which you can view in a slideshow here, are gorgeous. Were any Canadian mutineers there on July 22? If so, please let us know, below.
After 18 months of construction and millions in fundraising efforts, a one-of-a-kind Hindu temple opened Sunday in Toronto.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper was on-hand to celebrate the official unveiling of the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir.
Harper said the $40 million architectural marvel represents India’s and Canada’s embracement of spiritual and ethnic pluralism.
“Canada’s accommodation of diversity is not without precedent,” Harper said, addressing a large crowd.
“There have been forerunners — and of these perhaps none is as note-worthy as India.”
Located at Hwy 427 and Finch Avenue in north-west Toronto, the temple is an architectural masterpiece. Built with Turkish limestone and Italian marble, the temple was built by artisans armed with chisels, hammers and ancient Hindu doctrine outlining how a holy place should be constructed. [CTV.ca]
By the numbers:
–24,000: the number of pieces sculpted in India, marked with a barcode and then reassembled to create the mandir.
–July 22, 2007: official opening
–$40 million: cost of construction, majority of which came from the community
–400: the number of volunteers who devoted their time to such an awesome project.
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As giddy as such architectural perfection makes me, my inner %$#@< is wondering if Dubya would have made like Harper, had this mandir been constructed somewhere in this great nation…
In the pilgrim places and the holy shrines, be charitable and serve food to the priests, sadhus and poor worshipers, according to your means of subsistence. Shloka: 83
chachaji
All Swaminarayan temples serve for to the poor and needy. Lord Swaminarayan instructed his devotees to do so. So finding temples that do such shouldn’t be hard. Another thing is your misconceptions about the BAPS faith, you should atleast look through BAPS website before making incorrect judgements.
http://www.swaminarayan.org/scriptures/shikshapatri/gems.htm
fixed.
BAPS Charitable work
http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk0MDYmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTcxNzcwODQmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2
Is it just that BAPS is not looking for non-Indian converts or do they not accept non-Indian converts? Even some Orthodox Churches refused people of Western European decent to become members, because they were not seen as suitable to understand Orthodox teachings in the opinions of their Church leaders. Nowadays, they are most welcome to Western members and many Hindu organizations do accept Western members as well. What about BAPS? To be honest, I am myself myself very interested in the Hindu religious scriptures, but would like to study them together with Indian and non-Indian Hindus alike. Are there any non-Indian worshippers or is BAPS open to everybody?
Michael,
Yes, BAPS is open to all. There are devotees who are non-Indian.
Michael
Yes, BAPS takes non-indian converts. I’m visit the Neasden temple(London) all the time and there are white, black, east asian worshippers, not just visitors. So, of course you can follow the faith, it’s just majority indian, right now. Anyway, things change overtime, BAPS is very progressive, which is why it’s one of the most well known hindu organizations. Peace.
i feel its good that temples are being.. built one its preserve culture for the future but mostly we will forget everything about the hindu culture.. this will tell be about hindu culture and make them want to learn more about.. thats main reason the temple is being built also yeah its also tourist attraction.. to education people about hinduism,.. i feel that is thier main purpose to education the ppl most people feel hinduism werid with millions of gods in reality which is not tru..
this temple makes it easier for man to comprehend vedic culture.. so spending 40 millions to preserve culture is a good thing.. espically when ur not in india..there at least someting being preserved!
gino italiano
I agree with you, the temple will pay for itself over time. With all the charity events, womens events, and education events, non-addiction campaigns that will go on this can be easily done in less than a decade. Not to mention that it’s a house of GOD, providing spiritual comfort to millions of people. You can put no value on that.
for u all …i would just say a word that whoever wants to know about what is BAPS and their activities…plz visit.. http://www.swaminarayan.org and i hope u all get answers to your questions..thnx .. may god bless us.
http://www.bapscharities.org/
I just thought i would note for many of you that hate doubts and questions about the Hindu Swaminarayan BAPS faith. You should visit two sites.
http://www.baps.org
and
http://www.bapscharities.org
Look at the this link for answers to almost all of those questions mentioned above.
http://www.swaminarayan.org/faq/index.htm
Instead of bashing on another religion without knowing anything about it…and just assuming, study it more than just a few incidents because not everyone’s perfect, so each religion is going to have the people that aren’t perfect.
Read the FAQ’s if questions remain…repost, i will try to answer them to your liking.
Jay Swaminarayan to all,
Bo