My visit to Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in New Jersey

Visiting temples is not and was never a priority weekend activity for me, but that doesn't mean I don't visit temples. Most of my family is very religious and prefers to visit famous shrines and temples. I have visited many places out of curiosity or to enjoy the architecture and the general feel of the atmosphere. I really liked it when I visited the Ganga ghats of Varanasi, the temples in that city are also good. They can be maintained in a much better way and turned into very prominent tourist attractions of that city, but somehow state and local governments don't think like me. Even without much support and management many of these temples attract millions of visitors every year and help the economy of that place. A few days back I visited the Shri Swaminarayan temple in Robbinsville, NJ. My wife really wanted to visit this place as she heard a lot about it from some of her friends and also saw some spectacular pictures of the temple on social media. 

The temple is really beautiful, situated on very spacious land, with an ample amount of parking space. There is still a lot of construction going on, so I think they are still in the process of building more structures there as there is a lot of empty land around and I am sure temple authorities would like to use it all. People at the temple are very nice and polite, they allow photography everywhere except inside the central part of the main temple. If you are wearing shorts or sleeveless or something like that they will give you a cloth (something like a lungi and shawl) to cover your body. I was happy to see that this rule was not just for women, but for men also. I didn't understand the logic behind this rule, but at least it was not a gender-discriminatory rule. I wonder what will happen if someone enters the temple in shorts or a sleeveless top? This rule was not applied to kids, which made sense as parents would have struggled to explain to them why they had to wear lungi or shawl inside the temple. Inside the temple right in front of deities, there was an empty space for devotees and visitors to sit and pray. The area was divided into two sections, the front section belonged to men and the back section to females. My daughter was not happy to see the females being given a back seat, she was (and even I was) wondering, why didn't they divide the section into two halves which would have allowed each side to get a chance to sit in front of the deity. There was no prasad after aarti, I couldn't believe it, such a posh temple and no prasad after aarti? I love the taste of Prasad food offered at many temples, and most of them give it free after their pooja or aarti, but here it was different. It seems one has to buy Prasad from the temple cafeteria. I liked this business idea, after all, whether it's a temple, church, mosque, or any other religious place, they all are also business centers and have to generate income to maintain themselves. If you understand this simple basic thing, many of their policies make sense.

Our visit was short and sweet. We attended aarti and left for our next destination. My wife was really happy to visit the place and it made me very happy. The kids were also happy to see a beautiful structure and learned some mythological stories while we were at the temple. In general, it was quite an enjoyable trip.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Links:

1. http://www.baps.org/Global-Network/North-America/Robbinsville.aspx

Do we need to build any more Temples?

Recently I read an article about a plan for the construction of a huge Vedik temple by ISKON at Mayapur in India. This temple is supposed to cost around 75 million USD, this is a huge amount of money as far as a country like India is concerned. Spending such a huge amount of money just for the construction of a temple is like a cruel joke on all who could benefit from all this money if it's spent for some relevant social cause. I also see a lot of photos of many temples, churches, or other religious centers which are constructed using very expensive materials, and decorated with precious metals like gold and silver. A lot of material and money is wasted to build and decorate them, they really look like grand and lavish displays of wealth, very often thought comes to my mind why can't this money be used to build other things that can be more useful to people? After I started writing this post there was huge controversy in the media when Mr. Modi said, "Pehle shouchalaya phir Devalay" (build toilets first then temples), a similar statement was made by Mr. Jairam Ramesh a few years back and then also it generated a lot of controversy for some different reason. So the question is, do we need any more lavish temples (I am using the temple as a general term for all religious centers like Mosque, Church, etc.) when people don't have access to some basic facility like a school, hospital, or a toilet?

I personally believe that we have enough religious monuments for all religions all over the world. One can find a temple, mosque, synagogue, church, or something equivalent in almost all major cities of the world, we don't need to build any more of these. Many people visit these places and some of them are big tourist attractions which attract millions of visitors every year. All the money from tourism is not reinvested in the community but it stays with that temple or private entities. The question is, in a country like India where many are living without home, proper medical care, food or education should any organization spend such an enormous amount of money to build a religious monument that will be just a tourist attraction? Can't they use this money to do something better, more useful thing, something like a hospital or a free school or college for the underprivileged or even toilets? On one side we all say that God is everywhere but then keep on building huge, expensive, and lavish structures just to host their images or for social gatherings (like prayers, etc.). Many religious institutions spend enormous amounts of money to build and maintain these buildings instead of helping people who are struggling for their basic needs. I am sure their God would love them more, and bless them more if they used this money for people's welfare instead of building another temple, Church, or any other religious monument.

Religion is a personal as well as social need for many and there are already many centers that can satisfy this need. If a temple serves as a place for social gatherings, to give shelter to the homeless, or to provide food and education for the underprivileged then it's a good thing. Some religious institutes do these things but to do such work I don't think we need any fancy structures with expensive decorations. One can build a simple structure and use all that extra money for some better social activity. A country like India needs more toilets than temples or churches, even though this thought was expressed by major political leaders from two big national parties of India, there are very few takers for this idea. Still, the construction of a temple or Mosque is considered more important than the construction of basic facilities like toilets. Isn't it ironic that in a country that hosts one of the richest temples in the world, many people still don't have access to basic facilities like toilets? Some of these religious institutes are so rich that if they want they can do wonders for society with all the money they have, but they behave just like big corporates, exclusively protecting their own interest without any real real social agenda. I think with all the problems our society is facing these institutes should put all their plans for the construction of Mosque, Church, or temples on hold, rather they should spend all that money on some social causes like building more medical care facilities, distributing medicines to poor, offer free education to needy, sanitation facilities (like toilets, especially for women), etc. There is a tremendous need for funds in all these areas and these institutes can play a very big role in funding such infrastructure projects. I hope they all think about this idea and give it serious consideration. One more temple, mosque, or church may not change anyone's life but one more school or hospital might change and save the lives of millions of people. Even a public toilet can make life easy for many and I believe doing this is no less than offering prayer to any god.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Links:

1. Mayapur to get largest Vedic temple
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmanabhaswamy_Temple
3. http://luxpresso.com/photogallery-lifestyle/top-richest-temples-in-india/6249/2
4. Is the Catholic Church the richest organization in the world?
5. In Mumbai, a Campaign Against Restroom Injustice