Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Gadhada

Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Gadhada (Devnagari: श्री स्वमिनरयन मन्दिर, घडडा) is a Hindu temple in Gadhada. This temple was built by Swaminarayan himself.

About this Mandir

The land for constructing this temple in Gadhada, was donated by the court of Dada Khachar in Gadhada. Dada Khachar and his family were devotees of Swaminarayan. The temple was made in the courtyard of his own residence. The temple work was planned and executed directly under the consultation and guidance of Swaminarayan. Swaminarayan supervised the construction and also helped with the manual service in the construction of the temple, by lifting stones and mortar. This shrine has two stories and three domes. It is adorned with carvings. The temple is placed on a high plinth is a spacious square and has an assembly hall with large dharamshalas and kitchens for ascetics and pilgrims.

Swaminarayan had installed the idols in this temple on 9 October 1828. Gopinath and Harikrishna in the middle shrine, Dharma and Bhakti and Vasudeva on the western shrine and Revti-Baldevji, Shri Krishna and Suryanarayan in the eastern shrine.

List of Swaminarayan temples

Swaminarayan, the founder of the Swaminarayan Sampraday, established temples, known as mandirs (Devnagari: स्वामीनारायण मन्दिर), as part of his philosophy of theism and deity worship. These mandirs are known as Swaminarayan Hindu temples.

He constructed nine temples in the following cities; Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Bhuj, Muli, Vadtal, Junagadh, Dholera, Dholka, Gadhpur, Burhanpur & Jetalpur. In these temples he installed images of various Hindu gods, such as NarNarayan Dev, LaxmiNarayan Dev, RadhaKrishna Dev, RadhaRaman Dev, Revti-Baldevji, Madan Mohan Dev etc. Each of these nine original temples fall either under the NarNarayan Dev Gadi, Ahmedabad or the LaxmiNarayan Dev Gadi, Vadtal depending on their geographical location.

One of the most prominent features of the heritage of Swaminarayan is temple architecture. The images in the temples built by Swaminarayan are the evidence of the priority of Krishna. All of the temples constructed during his life show some form of Krishna, and all temples since have such worshipable murtis. In the temples of the dioceses of Ahmedabad and Vadtal, they are predominantly a central altar or a shrine. Human forms are predominant for an known exception of a Hanuman temple at Sarangpur, where Hanuman is the central figure. The temples have accommodations for sadhus built next to them. Stones were quarried in far places and carried to the temple sites.

Swaminarayan

Swaminarayan (IAST: Svāmīnārāyaṇa, 3 April 1781 – 1 June 1830), also known as Sahajanand Swami, is the central figure in a modern sect of Hinduism known as the Swaminarayan Hinduism.

Swaminarayan was born Ghanshyam Pande in Chhapaiya, Uttar Pradesh, India in 1781. In 1792, he began a seven-year pilgrimage across India, adopting the name Nilkanth Varni. He settled in the state of Gujarat around 1799. In 1800, he was initiated into the Uddhav sampradaya by his guru, Swami Ramanand, and was given the name Sahajanand Swami. In 1802, his guru handed over the leadership of the Uddhav Sampraday to him before his death. Sahajanand Swami held a gathering and taught the Swaminarayan Mantra. From this point onwards, he was known as Swaminarayan. The Uddhav Sampraday became known as the Swaminarayan Sampraday.

Swaminarayan developed a good relationship with the British Raj. He had followers not only from Hindu denominations but also from Islam and Zoroastrianism. He built six temples in his lifetime and appointed 500 paramahamsas to spread his philosophy. In 1826, Swaminarayan wrote the Shikshapatri, a book of social principles. He died on 1 June 1830 and was cremated according to Hindu rites in Gadhada, Gujarat. Before his death, Swaminarayan appointed his adopted nephews as acharyas to head the two dioceses of Swaminarayan Sampraday.

Swaminarayan (disambiguation)

The word Swaminarayan or Svaminarayan may refer to:

Swaminarayan (spiritual tradition)

Swaminarayan Hinduism, also known as the Swaminarayan faith or the Swaminarayan sect, is a modern spiritual tradition, as a subsect of Vaishnava Hinduism, originating in the state of Gujarat, in which followers offer devotion to and worship Swaminarayan as a form of Vishnu. The Swaminarayan faith has a large percentage of Gujarati Hindus who are followers of Swaminarayan.

Beliefs

Considered a Vaishnava Bhakti sect following philosophical teachings of Uddhav as per Ramanujacharya. Since its origin, Swaminarayan Hinduism has been noted by its preservation of Gujarati cultural and linguistic traditions, devotion to the personality of Swaminarayan as supreme deity and the reason of all avtārs, dedication to social service and a strict ethical code including uncompromising segregation of the genders.Monier Williams, on at least one of his visits, had long discussions with Swaminarayan and his followers and did his best to ascertain the way Swaminarayan's principles were preached. He visited the temple in Vadtal in the company of the Collector of Karira during a popular Kartik Purnima festival that took place there and recorded the basics. Those who are initiated into proper worship of Krishna deity are instructed to wear a Tulasi kanti or rosary beads in two rows around their necks, one for Krishna and one for Radha. Followers are also instructed to chant the mantra of śrī-kṛṣṇa smaraṇaṁ mama (great Krishna is my soul's refuge) and wear Urdhva Pundra Tilak markings on their forehead. Daily worship of Krishna in the temple was instructed and the Krishna mantra was central to the Swaminarayan's initiation (diksa). Supreme Being is believed to be referred by various names: Para Brahman, Bhagavan and Purushottama. While no detailed statistical information is available, most of the followers of Swaminarayan share a belief that Swaminarayan is the complete manifestation of Narayana or the supreme person and more superior to other avatars.