BAPS Shri Swaminarayan

On May 21st we made our second temple visit, this time to the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Hindu Mandir in Neasden. The weather was beautiful so we were all in a good mood to begin with. After checking in we were met by Shashi Kanabar, a representative of the Mandir, who began our tour by showing us a short (13 minutes) film about the history of the temple. The temple was completed in 1995 after three years of intense work by a largely volunteer force. It is built from marble and limestone, sourced from Italy and Bulgaria respectively, which was first shipped to India, to be delicately carved by Indian craftsmen, before being shipped back to London for construction. It's certainly an impressive building and should be a must for any tourist visiting London.

After the film we went up into the temple proper to view the Murti (statues imbued with the spirit of God). The Murti include such faces as those of Krishna, Rama and his wife Sita, Rama's good friend Hanuman the monkey warrior, the ever popular Ganesha and, of course, Lord Swaminarayan and carvings of his various incarnations, including the present one, His Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj.

We were then invited into a large meeting room to discuss Hinduism with Mister Kanabar. He answered a couple of questions for us and then continued to describe some of the particulars of the Swaminarayan tradition. He began by telling us that in order to be a Hindu you must be a strict vegetarian, specifying no meat, no fish, no eggs were allowed in the Hindu diet but milk, sourced from their sacred animal the cow, is apparently OK. Alcohol and cigarettes and other such pollutants are not permitted. Neither are you allowed to eat onions or garlic on account of the fact that they give you a nasty temper. I objected on the grounds that onions and garlic provide huge health benefits (apart from being delicious) and he advised that they use haldi (turmeric - also pretty tasty) in place of them for all kinds of health-associated ailments and for general well-being (I bought a bag from the market at the temple...). Instead of nasty chemicals to fend off garden pests, garlic is grown to scare away slugs, and the ash from incense is used to keep ants away – sound advice!


He then went on to the question of respect for one another, using the analogy of a rabbit living in the jungle, which seeks the respect of his sinister neighbours (snakes, tigers and such). He suggested that we must consider every one a danger, a threat and an enemy. He said that we shouldn't make close friendships because it leads to suffering when the relationship inevitably ends or goes through turbulence (as they do). We were told that this must be so in order to survive, clarifying that ‘survival’ included happiness and that this was impossible to maintain if we allow ourselves to form friendships with others. I am trying to be as objective as possible here and merely report the events of the day, and that which we were told, as accurately and unbiasedly as possible, however I should say that, to my western ears, this idea seems completely alien. I took it all to mean that one should focus on one's relationship with God, and not allow oneself to be distracted by the suffering inherent with worldly relationships: Mister Kanabar, please, by all means, correct me or respond to this if you like, for us all to better understand.


Finally he told us some of the important factors of the life and influence of Lord Swaminarayan himself. He was born in 1781, in the dark time between the Moguls and the British Raj. He embarked on a journey of spiritual enlightenment, leaving home at the age of eleven and walking for seven years, without clothes or money, across the length and breadth of India. His followers came to consider him an incarnation of God (Brahma). When he established the Swaminarayan tradition he made some important reforms, by way of abolitions. The first thing to go was the caste system, then sati or widow burning (the practice of surviving widows burning to death on the funeral pyre of their late husbands), which some claim, outside the Swaminarayan tradition of course, still occurs in India sometimes now (the last recorded instance was in 1987 – www.hinduismtoday.com). Finally, he abolished the dowry system (the practice of the bride’s family offering gifts and money to the groom at the time of a wedding). He saw dowry as very difficult for poor families, who had little to offer. The dowry system, it is claimed, has led to mass abortions of female fetuses, as well as many murders of young wives in India (up to 100 000 a year, generally aged between 15 – 34, usually through arson. – The Straits Times - http://blogs.straitstimes.com/2009/3/5/dousing-out-bride-burning), freeing up men to remarry and receive another dowry. The details I have provided here are taken from having read through numerous articles in Indian and non-Indian publications and are intended to serve to show why the abolition of these institutions has been so popular, as described by Mister Kanabar. It is not only the Swaminarayan tradition that has abolished these practices – dowry and sati are illegal in India today, though dowry is still, if we are to believe the press, widely practiced today. Our guide tells us that it was Lord Swaminarayan who first called for the abolition of these institutions (The Moguls tried to ban sati burning before that) and that for this he is celebrated and venerated.

Mister Kanabar spoke enthusiastically about the coming technological age, and how we will soon have cars that take you from A to B automatically while all passengers sit and read the paper - an exciting prospect! I asked about whether he believed that some of the stories we had encountered at the temple (for example that Lord Ganesha had his head replaced with that of an Elephant) were true; whether he believed that such things literally happened, in the way that, for example, some Christians believe in the virgin conception, or other such miracles, literally happened. He confirmed that he did not. His focus is on the truth of Shri Swaminarayan, and that the old stories of the epics provided such things as moral guidance, but are not considered to have literally happened.


After our time in the temple we visited the market, which is well stocked with all kinds of Indian (and non-Indian) goodies, including lots of sweets. Some of my students and I took advantage of the buffet lunch of Gujarati specialties at the restaurant there – highly recommended!

The Mandir is open to the public throughout the week. More details can be found at http://www.mandir.org/


ADDITIONAL: On the bank holiday Monday just gone, at the invitation of Shashi, I went along to the opening festival of the new Shri Sanatan mandir in Alperton in Ealing, a few minutes from my house. From the outside it’s an impressive building, as you can see, but inside it is really quite something. It’s like a greatly expanded version of the temple at Neasden – there must be thirty or more Murtis, few of which I recognized, but there were some familiar faces like Ganesha and Hanuman. There are two great domes, colourfully lit up and beautifully adorned with all kinds of figures including swans and peacocks as well as human figures. It’s not far from Neasden so, if you’re making a trip to see one mandir, it’s as well to see the other while you’re in the area.