The Baps Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Houston

Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Houston The Mandir is a place of worship and prayer for the followers of Hinduism. The BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir was built by BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha which is headed by Pramukh Swami Maharaj. The Mandir is located in Stafford. It took around 28 months to build the Mandir and it consists of 33,000 pieces of hand-carved Italian marble and Turkish limestone in India by 2,400 artusans. It was shipped over to Houston in containers. The marble pieces were fitted together in tongue and groove fashion like a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. The structure includes the 4-foot foundation but it doesn’t contain any steel or iron. The mandir is 73 feet high, 95 feet wide and 125 feet long. The columns and the walls include carving of deities, dancers, musician, elephants, horses, flowers and geometric designs. It was constructed according to the ancient Hindu scriptures. This Mandir is the largest in Texas. The structure is built according to the Shilpa Shastra (design of the temple prescribing the proportion of figure, composition, principles, meaning as well as rules of architecture) and collection of architectural treatises that have been an integral part of Indian architecture. Within the Mandir murtis have been installed in different statues. The central statues hold the murti of Swaminarayan, with
Gunatitanand Swami to his left, together worshipped as Askhar Purushottam Maharaj. On the other side there is a statue of other Hindu deities such as Radha Krishna, Shiva Parvati, Sita Ram, Hanuman, Ganpati and other gurus. The murtis are made up of marbles and are groomed with all the clothing, gold jewelry and with a gold crown with the gems and pearls in it. The construction started in 2002 with the celebration of first carved stone laying ceremony. And it was opened on 25 July 2004 in the presence of Pramukuh Swami. On the top of the Mandir there is a flag, which is mounted. The brass and gold leafed spires symbolize nectar and the flag symbolize victory and attainment. Every weekend we all get together in the Mandir and offers devotional worship to the deities throughout the day. We awaken the deities by singing morning hymns called prabhatiya. Then we offer them food and garments depending on the time. After that we do arti a ritual where devotees sing the glory of god while lighted cotton wick is circulated before the mutis, which is performed 5 times a day. During lunch time lunch is offer and during dinner time dinner is offered. Finally the sadus(saints) put the garments on the murits and while food is offered to the murtis they put to rest, their chamber doors are closed. In the mid October we have a celebration called Diwali a festival of Hindu in which we decorate the temples main entrance by doing rangoli (a design with colors) and decorate the temple with light the temples looks beautiful at night time.
We serve 108 dishes of sweets in front of god, which is called ankot. After that all the sweet are distribute among the people as a Prasad (which is a food severed to god). After that we have some entertainment such as dancing, singing and the kathas (drama show), which tells us importance of our culture and religion. Teach us the meaning of life and death and the tell us the story of our god and
goddess. The only thing people don’t like about this temple is girls can’t wear sleeveless top, jeans or short. That is against our religion but some people forgot that we have to follow our religion we god to pray and god want us to be fully dressed. Some people think that it’s ok but some people specially the volunteer don’t allow them to go into the temple if they are not properly dressed. But the temple is sight worth seeing. Just be aware of culture and tradition, remove footwear before entering the temple and the food, which they give you after you pray try not to waste it’s a Prasad, which we serve to our god. It’s a breathtaking and a peaceful place to go. And you aren’t allowed to take picture inside the temple.