Shree Swaminarayan Temple

In News

• The President of India addressed a Yuva Shivir being organised by Shree Swaminarayan Temple, Kundaldham.

Kundal Swaminarayan Temple

• Location:
  • Shree Swaminarayan temple at small village Kundal of Barvala taluka of Bodata district Gujarat is also known as Kundaldham and dedicated to Lord Swaminarayan.
• Significance of this temple:
  • This temple has set an ideal example of service to the nation by providing assistance to the needy in natural calamities, providing free food and medicines to the poor, and transforming the temple into a COVID Hospital during the pandemic.
  • Other various initiatives to protect the environment which include taking care of Gir breed cows, conserving of Utavali River, tree plantation, organic farming and cultivation of ayurvedic and herbal medicinal plants in the Mandir campus.
• Lord Swaminarayan:
  • He is also known as Sahajanand Swami.
  • He was born in Gonda district, Uttar Pradesh in 1781.
  • In 1792, he began a 7-year pilgrimage across India at the age of 11 years, adopting the name Nilkanth Varni. He settled in the modern-day Indian state of Gujarat around 1799.
  • He was a yogi and ascetic around whom the Swaminarayan Sampradaya developed, and whose life and teachings brought a revival of central Hindu practices of dharma, ahimsa and brahmacharya.
  • He is believed by followers to be a manifestation of God.
  • Swaminarayan developed a good relationship with the British Raj. He had followers not only from Hindu denominations but also from Islam and Zoroastrianism.
  • Swaminarayan insisted that education was the inherent right of all people, including women, despite considerable criticism from those in his own contemporary society who “loathed the uplift of lower caste women”.
  • Swaminarayan worked towards ending the caste system, allowing everyone into the Swaminarayan Sampradaya. 
• Swaminarayan Akshardham
  • It is a Hindu temple.
  • It is a complex display of traditional and modern Hindu culture, spirituality, and architecture.

Source: PIB