LONDON, ENGLAND, March 3, 2009: Setting foot in the BAPS Swaminarayan temple in Neasden, there’s a strange feeling of transportation: from wintry north London to the music, lights, and incense-scented air of India.
The Deity statues, lit by spotlights and dressed in vividly colored clothing, stand in niches of carved marble. In private, before the devotees were allowed in, these murtis were dressed, offered water, and the whole area thoroughly cleansed. For they’re not simply statues: they are imbued with the living presence of the Deities they represent, and have been since they were consecrated by the group’s spiritual leader in 1995.
(To read the rest of this article, a good summary of all that a Hindu temple in a Western country can offer, click on the link above.)