AksharDham Temple

Akshardham Temple – Personifying Years of Indian Culture in its Astounding Panorama

Many of us might have visited Delhi numerous times and have seen incredible monuments and other architectural as well as historical and cultural beauties that, our capital state, Delhi has to offer us. Many of us even went to visit nearby locations from Delhi that are quite popular as tourist destinations like Himachal, Kashmir, Rajasthan and many more. While considering Delhi as an important place not only because it is India’s Capita but also because it is the abode of some famous tourist attractions like India Gate, Lotus Temple, Qutb Minar, Rashtrapati Bhavan, Humayun’s Tomb, Jama masjid and many other temples, many of us do not consider Akshardham to be a place that deserve a visit.  The reason is, that very few Indians (let one foreign visitors to our country), know about the real wonder of Delhi, or should I say the Gem of Delhi and pride of India (it should get a title something like this) The Swaminarayan, Akshardham Temple.

Unfortunately I used to belong in the same group of my fellow Indians who are not aware of this architectural beauty of our country until I paid a visit to it last year. Thanks to my sweet baby cousin sister, (who is living with her parents there for 3 years) who literarily ordered us(me and my husband) to come to this place with her otherwise she is going to miss the visit. It is even strange that even they (my uncle, aunt and my kid sister) have never paid a visit to the Temple until I and my husband paid a visit to them in Delhi! Though they have heard of it!

Frankly speaking, both me and my husband, we were unaware even of the existence of this beautiful piece of wonder, till we actually visit it. This is definitely sad and bad, but unfortunately there are many of us who are equally ignorant of this architectural beauty like we were few times back. But if you take some time and read what I am about to share with you, definitely all of you will surely make a point to visit this place whenever you visit Delhi in future. In fact we should, otherwise it will be our loss to not being able to feel proud a bit more of our country, its beauty, its culture, Art and Values.

The Akshardham Temple, is a place where “Art is ageless, Culture is Borderless, and Values are timeless”

The temple Swaminarayan Akshardham denotes the eternal abode of Bhagwan Swaminarayan, who is regarded as the torchbearer of Indian spirituality and culture.  Build near the banks of river Yamuna, in New Delhi, the Akhshardham temple is a grand 100 acre cultural complex which showcase India’s glorious traditions of art, culture and spirituality. Completed in five years the temple is an outcome of the fulfilment of the wish of His Divine Holiness PramukhSwami Maharaj’s Guru Yogiji Maharaj. The temple was started to build in the year 2005, November and after being completed only in five years it was opened in the year 2005. It is said that it took near about 300 million man hours to engrave 300000 stones to create the entire complex!

Apart from the beauty of the craftsmanship the focal point of this temple complex is the majestic and magnificent Akshardham Monument, which is made of pink sandstone and white marble. With 234 intricately carved pillars, 9 magnificent domes, 20 pinnacles and more than 20,000 superbly carved figures, the temple is 141 ft high, 316 ft wide and 356 ft long.

Furthermore the sanctuary complex, there are numerous attractions spread over the 100 section of land premises of the sanctuary. There is a craft display, musical fountain, a tremendous screen in the extraordinary theatre which indicates numerous instructive movies and a few presentations held now and again all through the year. A significant fascination in the sanctuary complex is the World Peace landmark.

Parts of the Complex

The temple complex is divided into different sections each has something wonderful, special and different to offer. Firstly, while entering the interior complex of the temple you will be welcomed by the “Ten Gates”. These beautifully crafted arched gates represent the ten directions, symbolizing freedom of thought in Sanatam Dharma as expressed in the Rig Veda: “Let Noble Thoughts come to us from all Directions”. These gates have water screens that are meant to calm the mind of the visitors from all the mundane thoughts and agitations and bring a soothing and tranquil experience. These Gates takes you to Visitors Centre: Bhakti Dwar and Mayur Dwar. The Bhakti Dwar commemorates the Indian tradition of devotion with the help of 208 sculpted dual forms of God and His ideal Devotee, where as the two Mayur Dwars honour the joy and beauty of peacocks contribute to nature. There are 869 stone peacocks in different shapes and sizes that adorn each gate. The interior of the Main temple is even more breathtaking. The main sanctum enshrines the idols of Bhagwan Swaminarayan and his spiritual successors. This is the place of prayer and silence which provides joy and peace to all. Inside the temple monument there are 12ft high colourful paintings that depicts life and work of Bhagwan Swaminarayan. There is also idols of other deities inside the temple monument, like Shri Shiv-Parvati; Shri Ram – Sita; Shri Radha –Krishna.

Next most interesting part of the complex is the Gajendra Peeth or Grand Elephant Plinth. This is a captivating, 1070ft long pageant of elephants in stone, with a total of 158 stone elephants, 44 animals, 125 human figures and ornamental background. It urges mankind towards nobler living and love for nature.

Then there is Mandovar, which is basically the lavish and opulent outer wall of the Main temple, which is 610ft long, 25ft high, featuring 200 sculpted stone figures of India’s great devotees, rishis, sadhus, avatars and achariyas. It is considered to be the most intricately carved largest mandovar ever built in India.

Another interesting section of the Temple is the Narayan Sarover, which is the holy water body with ghats and Lotus flower and this water body surrounds the Akshardham monument.

The next interesting section of the complex is the Yagnapurush Kund, which is a fascinating amalgamation of a traditional yagna kund and a magnificent musical water fountain. The kund is Lotus shaped. Every evening, after sunset, a musical fountain show is conducted here, is a spectacular and should not be missed at all.

There is also Yogihriday Kamal, an eight petalled lotus shaped arena that pays tribute to the auspicious sentiments of Yogiji Maharaj. Each petal here has a shrine that shows quotes of distinguished sages, historians, scientists and statesmen.

Another magnificent section of the temple complex is the Cultural Garden, which is an environmental and cultural show spread over 22acrss of colourful gardens and lawns. It is a fine display of India’s cultural and spiritual and historical legacy.

However this is not the end. There are more to this. Everyday three different and exciting exhibitions are held inside the complex. The first show is the Sahajananand Darshan or Hall of values. This is a light and sound show of fifty minutes duration. This show is an amazing presentation of films, light, sound and Audio-animatrics. Then there is an inspiring Film show of forty minutes on the life of Bhagwan Swaminarayan which is called Neelkanth Darshan. This is a superb award winning, big format period movie. The Next is perhaps the most interesting and astounding part of the whole experience: A boat ride to Indian culture – Sanskruti Vihar. This is a spectacular 14 minutes boat ride exhibition that portrays more than ten thousand years of India’s ancient culture and contributions to the world. The presentation is very life like and extremely captivating.

While visiting the Akshardham you can even enjoy food. The temple has a food court that serves pure veg delicacies to the visitors. There is also a souvenir shop named Akshar Haat.

One thing that I feelt bad about and most of you will too after hearing is that while entering Akshardham you cannot take along with you anything, literally anything from outside which also covers all kinds of electronic gadgets even cell phones. You can’t even take a small purse with you! Though this means that you cannot capture the beauty of the temple in your camera but for the sake of security (security became tight after 2002 attack on the temple in gujrati) and to respect the sanctity of the complex this is acceptable and should be followed.

The Akshardham Temple of New Delhi is developed in a structural manner equivalent to that of the Akshardham sanctuary that is found in Gandhinagar in the state of Gujarat. Its structure is focused around the long time past Sthaapatya shastras of India and is raised altogether out of sandstone and marble without utilizing steel. The primary altar house the icon of Lord Swaminarayan and a landmark commending world peace is mesmerizing. Because of its tremendous size the sanctuary is incorporated in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Every bit of the Akshardham Temple Mesmerizes and demonstrates the overwhelming skilfulness and power of the human hand and mind.

While looking for pictures of Akshardham on net I found this amazing site where you can see a 360 degree panorama of the Akshardham temple: http://www.airpano.com/360Degree-VirtualTour.php?3D=akshardham-india

                                                                                                PC: Google Image