Rajiv Malik, HPI Correspondent,
DELHI, INDIA, November 7, 2005: Swaminarayan Akshardham Temple is a magnificent monument depicting Indian art and culture, architecture and values. It is built on around 100 acres of prime land at the banks of holy river Yamuna in the heart of India’s capital, New Delhi. The US$44 million project was built with the help and support of around 11,000 craftsmen and volunteers of BAPS [Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminaryan Sanstha] who devoted hundreds of thousands of man hours over a time span of five years. The monument was formally opened at the auspicious moment of 6:15 pm on Sunday, November 6, by the head of BAPS, His Divine Holiness, Pramukh Swami Ji Mahraj, in the presence of the President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the Prime Minister of India, Shri Manmohan Singh, and the Leader of Opposition in the Indian Parliament, Shri L.K. Advani.
The highlights of the three-hour dedication ceremony included scintillating and mesmerizing performances by hundreds of young male dancers, chanting of Vedic mantras celebrating the five elements — earth, water, fire, wind and space and depiction of ten thousand years of glorious ancient heritage through tableaus and light and sound shows with the help of dozens of small and large digital plasma screens set up all over the temple complex to reach the audience of 25,000 guests.
The dignitaries were welcomed with the waving of small Swaminarayan and national flags by all guests. At the end, they conducted a traditional aarati with 25,000 lamps in an unforgettable scene.
The huge audience gave a standing ovation to Brahmavihari Swami, a monk of BAPS who read out the original English version of the poem entitled “The mother embraces her children” and also its translation in Gujarati, especially penned on Akshardham Temple launching ceremony by the President of India Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. The poem said – “My journey commenced, in my ancestral home. Loving families with multiple cradles, of the civilization of my nation. My mother embraced me with love, I felt the soft touch of my mother’s hand. I cried and cried, she kissed me. I saw the dawn of civilizational abode – Akshardham.”
Delivering his speech, Dr. Kalam said, “I am indeed delighted to participate in the dedication assembly of Swaminarayan Akshardham Cultural Complex at New Delhi in the presence of His Divine Holiness, Pramukh Swamiji Maharaj. I greet the spiritual leaders, intellectuals, architects, sculptors, thinkers, social reformers and other distinguished guests participating in this dedication ceremony. I particularly greet the designers and contributors from India and abroad for creating such an architectural complex, which every Indian will be proud of.”
Dr. Kalam went on to say, “Pramukh Swamiji Maharaj has inspired thousands of people across the country and abroad and brought together the best of the minds for creating a beautiful cultural complex. It has become a place of education, experience and enlightenment. It creatively blends the traditional stone art and architecture, Indian culture and civilization, ancient values and wisdom and the best of modern media and technology. Multiple layers of this complex expresses the strength of the mind, willpower of the human being, indomitable spirit, flowering kindness, fusion of scientific and medical talent, myriad colors of varied cultures and ultimately the power of knowledge. In essence, it is a dynamic complex with lively images.”
Administering a special oath designed for the dedication ceremony, Dr. Kalam made the whole gathering recite with him the following words- “With the foundation of spiritual awakening gained from Akshardham, now my mission will be to enrich the nation through commissioning of 1,000 Akshardham PURAs (Providing Urban Facilities in Rural Areas) in different parts of the country within the next 5 years under the inspirational leadership of His Divine Holiness Pramukh Swamiji Maharaj.” Addressing the gathering Prime Minister of India Shri Manmohan Singh said, “Ours is a country of unity in diversity. This is the ideal preached by Lord Swaminarayan who also strongly advocated the abolition of caste system in his time, and this even influenced the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi.” Shri Singh lauded the technical excellence of India’s craftsmen who built the Akshardham Temple and said, “They are so advanced that they could create such a great temple structure without using any iron in it.”
The Prime Minister hoped that the inauguration of the temple would mark a beginning of a new era in religious tolerance and “spread the message of peace and communal harmony throughout the world.”
In his address Shri L.K. Advani, leader of the Opposition, claimed that he was not an outsider but was a part of the great Swaminaryan family.
Shri Advani pointed out that the internationally renowned magazine Readers Digest had listed Akshardham Temple in London as one of the seventy modern wonders of the world. He went on to say, “The New Delhi Akshardham is a much bigger monument than the London one, and once the magazine sees it, they will have to declare this to be ‘the most unique monument of the world’.”
In his presidential remarks, the head of Swaminarayan organization Shri Pramukh Swami Ji Maharaj said that it would be wrong to say that they were in a some kind of race or competing for the number one position by building a grand monument like Akshardham Temple in New Delhi. He said, “We have a tradition of humility and humbleness, and we are the servants of even those who are the servants of the God. Our purpose of building this monument was to fulfill the dream of my guru, Shri Yogi Ji Mahraj, and it has taken 35 years to translate his dream into a reality.” Highlighting the message of Lord Swaminarayan, Bapa [as Shri Pramukh Swami ji is known to his close devotees] said, “His message was to work for the welfare of the whole humanity. Lord Swaminarayan had said that only through love and bhakti can we change the hearts of the people. He did not just say this, but he put this philosophy in practice and transformed the lives of all those who came in touch with him by getting them free from the clutches of vices like drinking, smoking and meat eating.” Bapa expressed the hope that all those who would visit the temple will get inspiration and good sanskars and also have their lives transformed by understanding the teachings of Bhagwan Swaminarayan.
The whole program was conducted in Hindi. Even the President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam uttered his first few sentences in Hindi before he switched over to English. While the Prime Minister and Advani Ji could easily speak in Hindi, Pramukh Swami Maharaj Ji who normally speaks in Gujarati, spoke in Gujarati alternated with Hindi for over twenty minutes.
It was a touching moment for the audience to see the Prime Minister of India Shri Manmohan Singh and the Leader of Opposition Shri L.K. Advani touching the feet of Pramukh Swami Ji Maharaj while returning to their seats after completing their speeches.
The whole dedication ceremony of the Akshardham Temple was managed in an extremely professional manner. In fact, the modern management gurus could learn a lesson or two from this show totally managed by the Swaminarayan devotees and volunteers who had flocked here from all parts of the world.