BAPS Akshardham Temple. Gandhinagar.
As was expected there was a fair crowd, mostly devotees of Lord Swaminarayan and a few
of our kind, generally called “the tourists”, who come to see so-called tourist
attractions, which are generally beautifully constructed, well-landscaped, and laid-out
buildings, temples etc.
One can not carry mobile phones or cameras in the
temple
IMPORTANT
TO NOTE
1. If you go to the gate directly you will be sent back to the deposit
room to deposit all your phones and cameras. If there is too much of a crowd
and you have to return all the way back to deposit the phones/cameras is quite
frustrating. So go and deposit the phones/ cameras first. A token will be
issued to reclaim the items deposited. To compensate for this the temple
authorities have their own photographer who takes your photos which can be
collected after a gap of about 30 minutes. Of course, this comes at a cost and
you have to pay for the photocopy. The Photo for which we paid is attached.
2. While issuing the token, a photo of the person who is
depositing the items is captured. If visiting in a larger group, remember that only
the person who has deposited the items can reclaim them. This insures that no
fraud takes place.
Those who go to Akshardham or any temples
considered tourist attractions are not necessarily atheists. At these places of
worship, We the tourist also pray and pay obeisance to God. We being who we are,
like to have something to remind us of our visit to these wonderful places. Photos
taken at that place are the only memories we can carry. I see no logic or valid
reason for the “No photographs” rule at Akshardham or any other place of
worship or of tourist interest. It is high time the Department of Tourism issued
guidelines on this subject.
Akshardham Gandhinagar lives up to the rightly
earned reputation of r by the “Akshardham” temples built by BAPS all over India
and the World.
Like all the others, Akshardham Gandhinagar is grand,
it is huge, and it is built of pink red sandstone with exquisite and amazingly beautiful
carvings, It is located in a vast sprawling ground. These grounds are very
nicely and professionally landscaped with the right kind of well-maintained, trimmed
plants and shrubs. It also has plats and shrubs with excellent topiary work.
As you face the temple, on the right, there are
five exhibition halls. Others from the group were happy with whatever we had
seen by then and wanted to proceed to the next place. But I wanted to see one
of the halls named “The Mystic India”. I was sent off to satisfy my wish with a
stern warning not to take more than half an hour. So off I went. One cannot enter
any hall at his will. The entry has to be through hall number one, progressing
from hall 1 to hall 2, and so on and so forth till you reach hall five and finally
exit the hall’s corridor. So, I went to hall number 1.
Entry to the exhibition halls is as per laid
down timings. Luckily, I did not have to wait too long. Exhibition Hall no 1
had paintings of, life-size tableau covering the start of the pilgrimage by Shri
Swaminarayan at the age of 11. There is also an audiocassette playing in the background
describing the paintings and the tableau. As I was in a hurry I walked fast through
the hall. My progress was halted as the exit door to hall 1 and entry door to
hall 2 both were closed. The doors were opened only after the audio cassette
ended describing events covered in painting and tableau in hall no 1. As I was
pressed for time I requested the staff and came out without going through the
other 4 exhibition halls. Apparently, there is a continuous audio recording describing
the life and achievements of Shri Swaminarayan. Your progress through the halls
is controlled by the progressive unwinding of the audio cassette. The recording
is approximately 2 hours plus duration. So if you want to see all the
exhibition halls earmark about 2 hours plus for that activity.
I joined others and we were good to go for
Dandi Kutir which was the next place on our itinerary.
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