Baps Hindu Mandir temple: Everything we know about grand opening (thenationalnews.com)
Dear and respected Acharyas, Elders, and faith leaders of Sanatana Dharma,
This magnificent BAPS Swami Narayan Mandir is the most recent and magnificent Temple complexes conceived by the enlightened leaders and implemented in spectacular manner by countless of dedicated volunteers who are adherents of the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha in the past 3 decades or more The BAPS organization has built about 1,200 temples in India, the UK, US, Kenya, South Africa and Australia. Among more splendid trailblazing creative enterprises are these brilliant conceived and skillfully built Temples:
1. BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Londo, UK (Neasden Temple) The Neasden Temple-This was first Hindu Temple established in all of Europe. This is also a Magnificent temple Complex. These Temple complexes have exceptionally well formulated resources about our noble and luminous Sanatana Dharma. This link offers very useful precepts e.g.
2. Swaminarayan Akshardham (Delhi) - Wikipedia: Swaminarayan Akshardham is a Hindu temple, and spiritual-cultural campus in Delhi, India. It is the world's second-largest BAPS Hindu temple, following Akshardham, New Jersey, in the U.S. The temple was officially opened on 6 November 2005 by Pramukh Swami Maharaj in the presence of A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Manmohan Singh, L.K Advani and B.L Joshi. The Comprehensive Temple Complex in Delhi is recognized as the world’s largest temple by Guinness World Records.
3. BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Robbinsville. N.J.USA. It is the largest Hindu mandir in the United States and the second-largest Hindu mandir in the world. It is a grand Temple complex. It is second only to Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
In addition to these extraordinary achievements in building spectacular Hindu temple and Cultural centers as many as 1200 mandirs in the UK, US, Kenya, South Africa and Australia., the revered compassionate leader Pramukh Swami Maharaj sought to serve men, women and children in all stations of life whom he met. The BAPS organization under his empathic leadership has provided thousands of hot meals to survivors of the devastating deadly Earthquakes e.g., in Gujarat- Our CVHTS offered Homas collected donations and sent it over to augment the relief efforts. The BAPS also provided great assistance in Tamil Nadu after the horribly deadly and terrifying Tsunami when the sea just rushed in and swallowed everything in its path to great distance inland. Some of my Medical College and Govt Hospitals including my sister and colleagues the Children’s Hospital in Chennai were on th beach organizing triaging and urgent care for the survivors but without the generous big hearted BAPs volunteers and beneficent organization as a whole the survivors would have been left empty hearted and totally famished emotional and physically. These are just two examples of the relief operations that are without number and of immeasurable and sadly unrecorded benefits to the communities that were severely hollowed out emotionally, physically, socially and financially.
The Temple Complexes e.g. the Neasden Temple have exceptionally well-formulated, easy to understand resources about our noble and luminous Sanatana Dharma. This link offers very useful precepts e.g. “Despite the many diverse strands of Hinduism, most Hindus share some common beliefs. Here are just a few: There is one supreme, all-powerful loving God who is the ultimate creator, sustainer and destroyer of all things. God manifests on earth to revive Dharma and liberate souls. God is present in and can be worshipped through murtis (ritually infused sacred images). The goal of human life is for the soul to be liberated from the perpetual cycle of births and deaths so as to remain eternally in the blissful service of God in his transcendental abode. The guidance and grace of a spiritually enlightened guru is essential for an aspirant seeking liberation.”
These are the enlightened teachings of the Late HH. Pramukh Swamy Maharaj Teachings
To do bhajans, tell stories or do service is to ask God to be pleased. Everything will come in it.
No matter how much a man does, but by god's grace, his work will remain incomplete.
If a man improves, the family will improve. If the family improves, the society will improve. If society improves, the country will improve. If the country improves, the universe will improve. So let's improve first. What doesn't happen if a man thinks? He walked on foot and flew in the plane, even went up to the moon. Such a man can improve if he thinks so.
If we follow God's commands, we will have peace in the distance and there will be peace outside.
No matter how much penance, fasting, charity we do, it increases virtue, and when such infinite virtue is gathered together, the revelation is attained.
The ship runs in faith. The work of this people is done by faith. So, if we have the same faith in God, in the scriptures, in temples and in saints, then our work will be done properly.
My first most beneficial close interaction with BAPS devotees was at the Cultural Festival of India: BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Edison - Wikipedia
The Cultural Festival of India was a landmark thirty-day event organized by B APS, Cultural Festival of India - Edison, USA 1991 (baps.org) that took place between July 12 to August 11, 1991.[11] The event served to introduce Indian culture to individuals residing in the United States, through food, music, traditional dances, exhibitions, and educational workshops, among other things. My good friends Anju and Vijay Patel who were very helpful in creating our CT Valley Hindu Temple Community invited me to participate in CFI facilitated Darshan of poojya Pramukh Swami Maharaj. We prostrated ourselves before the enlightened Soul and spoke about our efforts to build our Hindu Temple in Middletown, CT and received his blessings. I met my psychiatrist friend Dr. Deen Chandora, MD who was volunteering with his friends at the CFI and had arranged for me to present Clinical information on my professional work with persons under the bondage of potentially deadly addictive chemicals. My esteemed friends Vijay and Anju Patel are among founding members and leaders of BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Hartford in Newington, CT. The extreme devotion and inspiration precepts shared at the CFI inspired me and some colleagues to be assertive in affirming the noble and enlightened fundamental truths of Sanatana Dharma.
About this time Dr. D. Chandora and I along with members of the Indian American Psychiatric Association sought successful to rebut very prejudicial statements about our Faith traditions in the Report of the Committee on Religion of APA who quoted no less a person than Cardinal Ratzinger who became Pope Bendict XVI who was considered an authority on all the spiritual Traditions of the World. Our strongly supported Petition to rebut the divisive and demeaning perspective advanced by the Cardinal who was the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Catholic faith in the Vatican was accepted and we received an apology from the Chair fo the Committee on Religion. Further the APA approved our proposal to present remedial perspective in a workshop, which was well attended during the 1991 Annual APA Conference entitled “Indian Religions are not Cults.” am_program_1991.pdf (psychiatry.org) CHP: Velandy Manohar, MD Participants: Jambur V. Ananth, Larry D. Shinn, Ph.D., Arnold S. Weiss Ph.D., Jay L. Glasser, MD., Deen Chandora, MD., Devoted BAP Swaminarayan Sanstah Member who brought this prejudicial characterization of Hinduism as a Cult to my attention as President of the Indian American Psychiatric Association.
I wish to share these Teachings in the Neasden Temple which are especially well thought out: BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, London (Neasden Temple) “Generally, a Hindu is a person who accepts the main beliefs of Hinduism and espouses the basic values and ideals of Satya (truthfulness), Saucham (purity), Daya (compassion), Ahimsa (non-violence), and Brahmacharya (continence before marriage and fidelity thereafter), among others. These values are practiced in daily living in various ways. For example, for many Hindus, part of a compassionate lifestyle would include a strictly vegetarian diet, and a life of purity would mean abstaining from all intoxicating substances such as alcohol and tobacco.”
“While remaining faithful to these values and other scriptural injunctions, a Hindu regulates his/her life according to the four main endeavors of Dharma (righteousness), Artha (wealth), Kama (aspirations) and Moksha (liberation). That is, each Hindu strives to lead a righteous life, earn an honest living, fulfil one’s aspirations through one’s earnings, and ultimately, be liberated from the perpetual cycle of births and deaths. “
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad [UK] also has published a very informative book, “Explaining Hindu Dharma- A guide for teachers. Second edition 1998. My own eBook Sadhana Path speaks about Sree Satyanarayana Swamy temple in Middletown, CT, the Goals, Aims, Belief systems and practices of Sanatana Dharma and my journey from Vishad towards Moksha through devotion and practicing renunciation. I offer sources of the spiritual precepts I have shared. The Companion Book The wonder of it all, Amen”, has many citations that provides resources to foster greater understanding of Sanatana Dharma Faith Traditions as well as the Spiritual traditions that are practices by people around the World.
Finally, I wanted to share this great news. There are a number of new reports on these transformative decisions taken by TTD Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam Welcomes People From Other Faiths to Join Hinduism, to Establish Proper System for Initiation – Hindu Press International (hinduismtoday.com)
I have posted links to some of these reports on my website with a compendium of spiritual resources that could be helpful to successfully introduce the individuals seeking to be immersed into vast spiritual ocean that is our illuminating Sanatana Dharma.
I humbly submit my responses.
I remain a great admirer of the Late Teacher, Builder and Spiritually evolved soul H.H. Pramukh Swami Maharaj and offer prostrations as I did during the CFI in 1991. I am overjoyed with this news of the BAPS Temple in Abu Dhabi especially after the wonderful spiritually uplifting news and pictures from the Rama Pranpratishtapana in Historic Ayodhya on the banks of the sacred Sarayu River. My website has a couple of Links on this most important development in the narrative of our ancient and glorious Sanatana Dharma Faith traditions.
I respectfully seek your esteemed responses
Om Tat Sat Sarvam Sri Krshnarpanan Astu.
Respectfully Yours,
Velandy Manohar, MD