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CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, August 9, 2004: For thousands of Hindus in the United States, a temple in Bartlett was transformed through age-old rituals into holy ground Sunday morning. “Before the ceremonies, it was just a structure, an architectural beauty,” BAPS Shree Swaminarayan devotee Uttam Dubal said of the building, part of a $15 million, 27-acre BAPS complex in Illinois. “Now the spirit of God has been invoked, and it becomes a mandir,” or “temple,” in Sanskrit. The elaborately carved limestone building was consecrated during traditional inauguration ceremonies led by His Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj, the sect’s spiritual leader. Swami traveled to the U.S. to inaugurate the recently completed BAPS temples in Houston and Bartlett, said Sheetal Shah, a BAPS media volunteer. During the consecration, Swami Maharaj invoked the spirit of God into richly costumed images of Radha-Krishna and other Hindu Deities as thousands watched via a video feed in a large tent on the grounds.



The Bartlett and Houston buildings are the only BAPS temples in the U.S. to be built from scratch according to guidelines of Vedic scriptures, said BAPS media volunteer Harish Patel. Rising nearly eight stories and boasting 16 gold-topped domes, the Bartlett mandir covers more than 22,000 square feet and was assembled from more than 40,000 pieces of limestone and marble carved by artisans in India. Under construction for 16 months and built by volunteer labor, it represents more than 2.5 million hours of service on the part of 1,700 BAPS devotees from the U.S. and abroad, according to estimates. Dubal said the BAPS worship services attract 600 to 700 people from the Chicago area on a regular basis.



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