New Jersey: The world on Sunday witnessed the magical inauguration of the largest Hindu temple outside India, the BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham, located 90km south of Times Square in New Jersey.
Yogi Trivedi, a Columbia University researcher of Hinduism, thinks the marble and limestone that adorn the spires, pillars, and archways of the magnificent Hindu temple in central New Jersey would create a monument to the divine if stones could talk, sing, and tell stories.
These stones convey the stories of seva (selfless service) and bhakti (devotion), which comprise the core of the Swaminarayan sect, a branch of Hinduism.
To hand-carve nearly 2 million cubic feet of stone, artists, and volunteers put in about 4.7 million hours of effort. The four Italian marble and Bulgarian limestone types traveled almost 8,000 miles to India before arriving in New Jersey.
Angkor Wat, initially built in the 12th century near Krong Siem Reap, Cambodia, and dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu by King Suryavarman II, is the largest temple complex in the world. It is one of 1,199 UNESCO World Heritage monuments and is currently referred to as a Hindu-Buddhist temple.
The Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, also known as BAPS, is a global religious and civic organization that belongs to the Swaminarayan sect. It has constructed numerous temples, including the one in Robbinsville.
“Service and devotion are the two basic elements that form the subtle foundation of how a temple so majestic gets built here in central New Jersey,” said Trivedi, a follower of and student of the Swaminarayan religious tradition.
After two others in New Delhi and Gujarat, the locations of the BAPS headquarters, this temple will be the third Akshardham, or “abode of the divine,” that the organization has constructed. The former is the world’s largest complex of Hindu temples. The sect will mark its 50th anniversary in North America next year, covering 3,850 locations and more than 1,200 temples worldwide.
Following a legal case filed in 2021 that alleged forced labor, low pay, and unfavorable working conditions, the New Jersey Akshardham, which has been under construction for about 12 years, came under scrutiny and criticism.
Now that 12 of the 19 plaintiffs have withdrawn their claims, the lawsuit has been paused while an inquiry is conducted “with which BAPS continues to cooperate fully,” according to Trivedi.
According to the lawsuit, the exploited individuals were Dalits or members of India’s formerly untouchable caste. Caste is a traditional system of social hierarchy based on birth connected to ideas of social rank and chastity.
Concerns remain concerning the ambiguous distinction between unpaid labor and the idea of selfless service, which adherents of the faith claim to be their central conviction among activists opposing caste discrimination and those campaigning for workers’ rights.
According to Trivedi, these allegations significantly impact the community because their faith has always instructed people to see the divine in all and love, serving them as manifestations of the religion. He claimed that Pramukh Swami Maharaj, the sect’s sixth spiritual leader, was a forward-thinking guru who cared passionately about social equality and envisioned such a temple site in the United States.
Thousands of volunteers, many of whom skipped classes and jobs to serve, were essential to the temple’s construction. He added that it is probably the first Hindu temple where women worked alongside the craftspeople to build the temple.
Families from all across the nation have been pouring into the temple complex to get a sneak glimpse.