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…
I believe some of their US temples are considered quite noteworthy too. Here’s some pics from the Chicago one, and I believe it or one of the others was written about glowingly in an architectural magazine.
There’s one in his backyard. Maybe smaller than the Candian mandir, but still quite impressive.
Yes, Shodan-san…but do you think he would’ve gone to its grand opening? Is that something you can see an Amreekan President doing? 🙂
Note to self
When you get 40 million dollars, make your house out of limestone and marble and have it built by skinny Indians armed with a chisel.
Inspiration behind Swaminarayan temples.
are those ice sculptures??? and are they wearing hats cuz it is so cold?
soooo pretty! can’t wait to go see it in person!
The only Swaminarayan Mandir I’ve been to was in Flushing, NY. There were separate sections (and entrances) for men (in front of the main altar with Swamiji) and for women (they had a diagonal view of the main altar and a separate altar to themselves in the back).
Are they all like that?
The architecture is so sculpturally detailed. Beautiful.
Vivek,
Yes, men and women always sit separately, at all temple functions.
Wow…they’re at it again. The largest Swaminarayan mandir I went to was in New Dehli. Made me wonder about two things…one, how many people of that faith were there really in Dehli?? and why did it remind me of Disneyland?? The majority of the people at the Dehli mandir seemed to be of other faiths and were at the mandir as more of a tourist attraction than a house of worship…but maybe that was the aim afterall??
I should add it was beautiful…but didn’t really feel like a spiritual place….
Curly asked:
Wow…they’re at it again. The largest Swaminarayan mandir I went to was in New Dehli. Made me wonder about two things…one, how many people of that faith were there really in Dehli??
I agree with curly … those BAPS people are a bit much. I visited the mandir in Delhi, and it was like Disneyland. I saw nobody actually doing any praying there – it was just one big tourist attraction. More recently, I got a flyer from the BAPS folks asking for donations. The form had three options for how much money I wanted to donate, with the smallest amount being $1000. If I have $1000 to donate, I’m certainly not going to give it to someone who is creating BAPS-land.
AT: I received the same flyer. I’ve had the pleasure (if you can call it this) of going to some events at the BAPS mandirs. After the lecture pieces (which are interesting at times….), almost always is a call for more $$$. My favorite is the number of fundraising efforts they’ve had for the new mandir threy’re trying to build in So Cal…they must have raised millions, yet the fundraising is still in full swing! They’ve had events like “hey seniors…sign up for life insurance…you don’t have to pay any premiums or anything…just when you die, the money goes to BAPS”…sounded fishy to me, but oh well. Another way to raise a buck.
I will give them props for a few things though…they do have cultural programs for the young and old as well as many health fairs. This is one nice thing, however, from my cousin who attended the programs/classes, they kinda have exclusively hang out with their peeps…oh and another great thing about them, the FOOD! The snacks sold at BAPS are the BEST! If you haven’t tried them, you should definitely do so! 🙂
Okay– this is fascinating to me, because when I realized that this mandir was a BAPS project, I kind of did a double-take, because a loooong time ago, I heard someone say unkind things about BAPS, and since I have no exposure to the movement (?) I haven’t really encountered anything beyond that. I’m one of your Disney-tourists; I’m stunned by how beautiful it is. 🙂 I don’t know if I’d actually GO (never been to a mandir), but I do admire what they’ve done, if only on an artistic/architectural basis. If y’all want to enlighten me on what your take on BAPS is, and you’re willing to be patient AND civil, feel free. 🙂
Ah, you already started. Awesome. 😀
It always boggles the mind when I see so much money being spent on places of worship. I mean if there was a god, would he not be happier if the $40 million was was used for something else to help your fellow man? Nevertheless gorgeous temple.
Ok one last comment (and then I really must get back to work)….I have MANY family members that are Swaminarayan (so this is where my exposure/comments come from)….have nothing against them. I find the religion very interesting.
One other thing (and maybe this is just with the folks in my family…but would love to hear if others have this)…so when Swamiji calls his devotees to some big event, the hardcore family members (there is one in each family) all jump on a plane and go. They’ve gone to India, Ohio, etc. The most interesting thing is not that they go, but that they don’t really follow all the tenets of the religion, yet are willing to go devote the time/energy for this to make it seem like they’re a very true/good believer. (Some of the rules they break…eat onions and garlic…drink or shoking..even eat MEAT!)
Work?! Shirk your work! That’s what the Mutiny is all about. 😉
No, really, thanks for all the insight. Glad you wasted time on this thread. 🙂
After the day I’ve had…this was a GREAT distraction and helped me unwind! Thanks for posting it…I could go on and on on this topic 😛
Do sample the awesome guju snacks, pickles etc. at Shayona. Avoid frozen bhaajis though. Yes, we remain resolutely earthly.
Any true blue BAPers out there want to confirm this:
I believe that BAPS folks do a lot of social work in Gujarat? I heard they have a residential college campus ( engineering ?) in a rural area which is staffed with phoren returned professors who moved back to India to do good works in the middle of nowhere and provide rural youth with the opportunity for ‘A’ class education.Sorry I do not have any confirmatory links.
The BAPS mandir in Delhi ( which I believe was blogged about on Sepia Mutiny a while back) is quite mind boggling in terms of sheer audacity of scale . For those who have visited other mandirs its a little disconcerting to see that the tallest statue is of the Swami, taller than the big 3 – Shiva ,Vishnu ,Krishna!!
Anna,
I was a visitor at an event they ran last year, and some of what I remember learning that day is that for some of the big temples (like the one you wrote about) the stonemasons were originally (from Rajasthan?) a population whose craft was almost dying out (no sustainable work in it, the sons were not carrying it on, etc), and the BAPS people hired them to do the work in the US (maybe at the UK temple too?), and it led to a revival of that type of stone work, and indeed, to the sons also learning the craft.
The BAPS people don’t seek to get any of their non-desi neighbors to convert, and will even gently try to dissuade the more ‘interested’ (or clingy) of that population to look to their own original faith for whatever answers they’re seeking. They are, in the main, Gujurati, and their BAPS Care charitable arm was, I believe, generally regarded as the leader when it came to caring for people (short- and long-term) after the earthquake. The Toronto temple’s opening was timed to coincide with the visit of their Pramukh Swami Maharaj’s tour of North America (or maybe it was the other way round….). I’m sure lots of other folks will chime in with other info, but I would just add that the people I met and interacted with that day couldn’t have been nicer, with the same pleasantness and easygoing manner that hard-bitten NYers like myself tend to identify with people we meet when traveling in the midwest or south. Not smarmy, just lacking that grit or edge that you find on the streets of midtown or the subway during rush-hour.
Their temples ARE stunning, no doubt. But I had a bad experience at the one in London. I went there to see the temple and the famous ‘Hinduism’ exhibition in the middle of winter, by myself. The temple closed at 8:00pm and at about 7:40pm, I was escorted to the gate because, ‘time for darshan is over’. I explained that I understood and would appreciate if someone told me where the nearest Tube Station was. Nothing doing..I was shown the bus station outside their compound and was told to ask there. Not very saint-like..me thinks.
I know distant relatives whose kids went to ‘Swaminarayan’ Academys around the world who ended up joining as ‘Sants’ or monks. Their folks are not too happy..thats for sure. One of my cousins was taken out of their school when his mother began to wonder why they never let him meet his family. It was always one excuse after another..’he’s in camp; they are out for a picnic; there are mock exams that they are studying for’ etc etc.
That being said, they are an interesting lot and sure have ways of making spectacular buildings to celebrate their faith.
Not a BAPS fan myself for philosophical reasons (like Swamis won’t look at a woman, segregation in the temples of women/men), but they have the marketing and building temples thing down pretty hardcore. In some ways, it reminds me of an Hindu version of Mormons. Very organized, pro-active in getting more members, and manage to get loads of money from devotees, and they manage their own money very well, too.
I remember reading about the BAPS Akshardham Temple in NYTimes last year, where they made a reference to it being like an amusement park for the religious tourists.
Nothing wrong with building beautiful mandirs, BAPS also has good social service outreach, but as a hindu I find their flavor of religion uncongenial. I remember my surprise when an american friend mentioned to me that he had gone to a temple and a wedding where men and women were segregated! It turned out this was a BAPS community. I had never heard of such a thing before nor had i ever seen such a thing myself.
The excessive veneration of the pramukh-ji also doesn’t work for me, this is not my understanding of a modern hindu guru (tr: teacher).
But good luck to them !
GujuDude: Agree with you on the women/men segregation issue.
Here’s what I don’t understand (and maybe a BAPS person can enlighten us all??)…so Swamiji cannot look at any women at the mandir (I had the misfortunate of being the in the parking lot of the mandir and didn’t realize that a Sant was coming my way (back was turned)…I was told to turn around so that the Sant wouldn’t see me). The part I don’t understand is…when they travel? do they keep their eyes closed? for example, if they’re being driven around town…do they look down at all times becasue women are all around in other cars? when they’re at the airport, what do they do? I presume they still have to go through security, etc….so is it only Indian women (more specifically those at the mandir) they can’t look at??? I can see I’m not going to get any work done and should call it a day!
My only exposure (other than what my Gujarati friends have told me) to Swaminarayan was posing behind the “No Women Beyond This Point” sign at the SN temple in Tithal, Gujarat. It killed pretty much any sympathy I might have for this modern movement that segregates against women and raises millions with which to do it. The temple was very uh, grand, but considering BAPS would like to be known for its “relief work”, you have to wonder what the justification for $40 million temples is, exactly.
Anna, thanks for blogging this, and that collage you made is very pretty too.
Filmiholic, very impressive how much you know about these folks. I grew up in India, and don’t remember ever hearing anything about them while I was there, and even now, I know next to nothing about them!
But this thread is well on its way to fixing that.
goyal uncle once asked tony snow if the president was into rounding out his visits to places of worship by visiting a new hindu temple opening in MD. TS fobbed him off with something about drop-ins and not receiving an invitation (which, apparently, dubya did receive)
re BAPS – i don’t really know much about them, so this part of the discussion is very interesting. though, i’ve been at my parents’ house for a few weeks and the amounts of BAPS mail is ridiculous. and my parents are definitely not followers.
BAPS is an offshoot of the original Swaminarayan folks. Wikipedia to the rescue again.
The whole not seeing a woman’s face thing is kinda weird. Yea, when they travel if they see a woman’s face, apparently they’re supposed to do prayer, fast, a bath to ‘cleanse’ themselves. The original swaminarayan groups aren’t as hardcore, but they’ve been surpassed by BAPS in popularity, marketing, and cash flow.
Yippeee!
BAPS or no BAPS, this news made my indo-canuck entrails buzz (in a good way). Noone brought up the BAPSishness of it all, everyone focussed on the Indo-Canuckishness of it. The temple and the museum are apparently open to all, regardless of gender or faith.
Re: Harper. I wouldn’t get all warm and fuzzy about him yet. He is selective about the groups he pays attention to, and has ignored aboriginals and gays (not to mention environmental groups). He’s also gotten us deeply tangled up in Afghanistan. Many people here view him as Dubya Lite.
I know a few BAPS types. Our local chappati and dhokla caterer is a member of BAPS. The kindly old lady always gives me something extra. Anna, try their food sometime. It’s gorgeous! But this segregation part sounds uncomfortable.
Anna,
I think Dubya was the first president to have a Diwali ceremony in the White House. It’s not a temple, but it shows that he’s a bit openminded.
dubya issued some message to the sikh community on Guru Nanak’s birthday in 2003 too
There is one in Houston, one about to open in Atlanta and one in construction in LA
i wonder if the money could have been better spent elsewhere? ….maybe build a 10 mil mandhir and 30 mil to some other cause.. i woner
Though of course, this is not an indication of the number of BAPS folks in Toronto. A very significant chunk, if not the overwhelming majority, of ‘Hindus’ in the Toronto area are Tamils from Sri Lanka. Some estimates take their number in the Greater Toronto Area to be as large as 200K. Their language and practice of Hinduism is quite different from the BAPS’ folks. The practice of sex segregation in the particular form the BAPS seem to practice it is not something I remember from any Hindu temple I’ve ever visited, and, AFAIK, is not practiced in the Sri Lankan Hindu temples.
Another question I have is why the BAPS would want Harper & co to come to the opening of their temple – it’s a photo opp for the politicians – but what’s in it for a (non-proselytizing) cult that the BAPS seem to be? What would the publicity do for them, since they do not seek converts?
Chachaji,
As to the “why invite him?” question, I got the sense from the people I met that they are very concerned about being accepted (or at least tolerated) by the neighborhoods they have their mandirs in, because, as you might guess, some people get up in arms when they learn of the planned temple, with, at the bare minimum, mentions of traffice concerns etc.
I’m guessing that the Toronto example is something like that, but on a much bigger scale of course…
And the only thing I ever knew about them before the event I was at last year was what I heard from (desi) friends which was always “They have lots of money.” 🙂
so i’m guessing being in kanada this place has central heating?
This cult seems to build architecturally stunning temples. The one in London (in the area called Neasden) is just breath-taking. Based on the pictures of the Toronto temple, the London one is very similar. There also much of it was done in India and then painstakingly assembled in Britain. The intricacy and attention to fine detail were just indescribable. It was nice to see that the craftsmanship and skills necessary to build such beautiful structures still exist in India. I appreciated the temple for its architectural merits, and for the fact that desis in the UK were building things on such a lavish scale that tourists of all cultural backgrounds were flocking to see. The temple dominates the whole area and IIRC you can see it from a long way off. As for the cult itself, it seems extremely focused on its swami(s), more so than (as far as I could tell) any traditional Hindu stuff. As Runa pointed out above (although in reference to the Delhi temples built by the same folks), “For those who have visited other mandirs its a little disconcerting to see that the tallest statue is of the Swami, taller than the big 3 – Shiva ,Vishnu ,Krishna!!” And as Msichana pointed out, it’s not easily accessible by public transport (which is not a common thing in the UK).
Wow…they’re at it again. The largest Swaminarayan mandir I went to was in New Dehli. Made me wonder about two things…one, how many people of that faith were there really in Dehli??
Sorry to nitpick, ANNA, but I don’t think that’s the best answer to the question? Hinduism multifaceted no one belief system blah blah blah …
I’m not up on BAPS (and what I’ve read here makes me a bit wary of them)–but, the claim that there’s something illicit about spending $40M on a temple strikes me as naive. It is aesthetically beautiful, which I think is a value probably shared by many of the donors to the project–it’s not as if $40M for “relief for the poor” is just going to magically spring out of the air from these donors in the absence of the temple-building project. In other words, from the donors’ perspective, the temple and the poor-relief aren’t perfect substitutes. So, to blame BAPS for spending on the temple rather than the poor is naive. And at least some serious cash is going to traditional stone-carvers in India.
That answer contains the statistic provided by the article this post was based on; I made no commentary beyond that, I was just trying to help. Would you be willing to point me towards a better answer?
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I never claimed to know much about Hinduism, I just try and be respectful of everyone’s traditions while creating a “safe” space for people to ask questions, raise issues, etc. I’m always eager to learn more, if someone has a link or a resource which they are constructive enough send me.
every time i read the acronym BAPS i think of the movie BAP*S.
Gujudude is right. BAPS is the offshoot of the original Swaminarayan Sampradaay. The direct sixth decendant of Swami Sahjanand – founder of Swaminarayan sect – is my High chum. He came to my son’s wedding reception in Ahmedabad last January. His name is Tejendraprasaad Pandeji. When he came into the reception hall with his entourage, all women including the bride was escorted off the stage – for a while. At his home though with his wife and my wife among other close friends and his son, grandson, etc… we are just friends. All I can say about Pramukh Swami of BAPS is that he is the inspiration behind building some monumental swaminarayan temples throughout the world. We will be in Toronto in second week of August, and would certainly visit this one.
I live five minutes away from this temple. It’s stunning.
the one in neasdon have the best veggie burgers and jacket photatos!! 🙂