For thousands of Hindus in the U.S. and as far away as India and Africa, a temple in Bartlett was transformed through age-old rituals into holy ground Sunday morning.
“Before the ceremonies, it was just a structure, an architectural beauty,” BAPS Shree Swaminarayan devotee Uttam Dubal said of the building, part of a $15 million, 27-acre BAPS complex on Illinois Highway 59 near Army Trail Road. “Now the spirit of God has been invoked, and it becomes a mandir,” or “temple” in Sanskrit.
The elaborately carved limestone building was consecrated during traditional inauguration ceremonies led by His Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj, the sect’s octogenarian spiritual leader. Swami Maharaj, a native of India who has no permanent home, traveled to the U.S. to inaugurate the recently completed Bochasanwasi Shree Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, or BAPS temples, in Houston and Bartlett, said Sheetal Shah, a BAPS media volunteer.
Although any building may be inaugurated as a mandir–the local BAPS group at one time worshiped in a former VFW post in Glen Ellyn–the Bartlett and Houston buildings are the only BAPS temples in the U.S. to be built from scratch according to guidelines of ancient Vedic scriptures, said BAPS media volunteer Harish Patel.
Rising nearly eight stories and boasting 16 gold-topped domes, the Bartlett BAPS mandir covers more than 22,000 square feet and was assembled from more than 40,000 pieces of limestone and marble carved by artisans in India.
Under construction for 16 months and built by volunteers, it represents more than 2.5 million hours of service on the part of 1,700 BAPS devotees from the U.S. and abroad, according to sect estimates.
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Compiled from news services
