Delhi’s Akshardham Temple

Delhi’s Akshardham temple is a Hindu temple situated on the banks of river Yamuna, near the Nizamuddin area. Pramukh Swami Maharaj, the spiritual leader of BAPS (the organization behind Akshardham’s creation), sanctified the temple in November 2005. The temple is very close to the Commonwealth Games Village that is being developed. In the temple compound there is a huge monument of stone with beautiful carvings, exhibitions on Bhagwan Swaminarayan and Hinduism, an IMAX cinema for showing religious short documentaries, a musical fountain which is very popular and a large garden which is very well maintained.

The main monument is dedicated to Bhagwan Swaminarayan and stands141ft tall. The design on the monument is according to Sthapatya-Shastra, which are ancient Vedic texts. The architectural style is a mixture of styles from all over India. The building is constructed of pink sandstone of Rajasthan and Carrara marble of Italy. This huge monument can be sighted from far away and the visitors who see it from close distance are left without any words to describe its beauty.

The sunken garden of Akshardham Temple is of a lotus shape when viewed from top. The garden has big stones which are engraved with quotes by renowned personalities from all over world right from Shakespeare, Martin Luther King to Swami Vivekananda and Bhagwan Swaminarayan.