A Trip to the Mandir

We took a field trip with our local home schoolers to the Hindu Temple in our area last week.  What an experience!

 From their literature: "A Mandir is a Hindu place of worship - a haven for spirituality and a place for paramount peace. It is also a center vibrant with social, cultural and spiritual activities. The BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir was inaugurated on August 26, 2007 after only 17 months of construction utilizing 1.3 million volunteer hours. The Mandir is comprised of 3 types of stone (Turkish Limra limestone, Italian Carrara marble and Indian pink sandstone). More than 34,000 individual pieces were carved by hand, shipped to the USA and assembled in Lilburn like a giant 3-D jigsaw puzzle."

The scope of the temple is really difficult to describe - it's a little unbelievable that it exists in the outskirts of Atlanta. The carvings seem to cover every inch of the building and the whole place is as peaceful as it is
beautiful.

 




The Chipmunk really enjoyed the reflecting pool, of course.  I even managed to keep him out of it.




Here he is outside after our tour



There is no photography allowed inside the temple and I'm not sure I can describe it justly.  It's white marble, lit by bluish LED lights sunk into drilled out holes.  Every surface is carved with religious iconography and the shrines are sunk back into the walls at intervals.  The shrines open and close throughout the day, but the temple itself is open to visitors from 9-6 every day.  We'll definitely be going back soon!