Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Gadhada

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Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Gadhada

Gadhada Swaminarayan Temple.jpg

The temple at Gadhada
Geography
Country India
State Gujarat
Location Gadhada
Culture
Sanctum Gopinathji Maharaj, HariKrishna Maharaj
History
Date built 9 October 1828
Creator Swaminarayan
Website www.gopinathji.com

Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Gadhada (Devnagari: श्री स्वामिनारायण मन्दिर, गढडा) also known as Gopinathji mandir is a Hindu temple in Gadhada. This temple was built by Swaminarayan himself. [1]

Shikharbaddha mandir

A shikharbaddha mandir is a traditional Hindu or Jain place of worship, typically featuring architecture characterized by superstructures with towers pinnacles and domes and often built of carved marble, sandstone, or other stone. While such mandirs are common in many branches of Hinduism, the use of the term shikharbaddha mandir to describe such mandirs is most common in the Swaminarayan branch of Hinduism as well as Jainism. The opposite of the shikharbaddha temple is one without a shikhara tower, i.e. with a flat roof.

Gadhada city in Gujarat, India

Gadhada is a city and a municipality in Botad District in the state of Gujarat, India. Gadhada is situated at bank of River Ghela.

Swaminarayan founder of Swaminarayan sect

Swaminarayan, also known as Sahajanand Swami, was a yogi, and an ascetic whose life and teachings brought a revival of central Hindu practices of dharma, ahimsa and brahmacharya. He is believed by followers as a manifestation of God.

Contents

About Gopinathji Mandir

Murtis of Harikrishna and Gopinath in central shrine Gopinathji Maharaj Gadhada Mandir.jpg
Murtis of Harikrishna and Gopinath in central shrine

This temple is one of six temples which was made under the supervision of swaminarayan. [2] 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. [3] 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. [1]

Dada Khachar (1800–1852) was a devotee of Swaminarayan and the Darbar Shri of Gadhada. His father was Ebhel Khachar and mother Somadevi and was named Uttamsinh on birth. He came to be known as Dada Khachar and had four sisters, Jaya,(jivuba) Lalita,(laduba) Panchali and Nanu. The entire family were followers of Swaminarayan.

Dharamshala (type of building) type of sanctuary, communal or religious resthouse

A dharamshala, also written as dharmashala is a Hindu religious resthouse. In Sanskrit, Dharma means religion, and shala means "sanctuary" hence dharamshala is a 'religious sanctuary' or rest-house for pilgrims, that is primarily created for religious pilgrims or as a religious endowment.

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. The idol of harikrushna has physique as same as lord Swaminarayan. [4]

Gopinath (god) god

Gopinath is a form of the Hindu god Krishna. He is also known as Gopinathji or Gopinathji Maharaj. Gopinath is associated with gopis who Krishna grew up with.

Vasudeva deity

In the Bhagavad Purana, Vasudeva was the father of the eighth incarnation of Vishnu, Krishna, and his siblings Balarama and Subhadra. He was a Yadav Prince. He was the son of great Yadav king Shurasena. He was the brother of Nanda Baba, who took care of Krishna during his early years as a child. His sister Kunti was married to Pandu. Kunti plays a big role later in the war Mahabharata.

Krishna Hindu god, incarnation of Vishnu

Krishna is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of the god Vishnu and also by some as the supreme God in his own right. He is the god of compassion, tenderness, and love in Hinduism, and is one of the most popular and widely revered among Indian divinities. Krishna's birthday is celebrated every year by Hindus on Janmashtami according to the lunisolar Hindu calendar, which falls in late August or early September of the Gregorian calendar.

Lakshmi Wadi

Lakshmiwadi (place of cremation of Swaminarayan) is situated a little away from the town. At Lakshmiwadi, a single dome temple has been constructed at the place of the funeral rituals of Swaminarayan's mortal remains. A little ahead, there is one canopy where Swaminarayan used to sit and deliver the discourses, and just a little ahead, there is the room of Nishkulanand Swami, where he placed the palanquin prepared by him for Swaminarayan's last journey. A neem tree faces this place, and on its western side, there is one more canopy where Swaminarayan celebrated 'Sharadotsava.'

Nishkulanand Swami (1766–1848) was a saint of the Swaminarayan Sampraday and one of Swaminarayan's paramhansas.

Other information

Besides the idols installed by Swaminarayan himself, the temple is a place of many memories of Swaminarayan. On the path of the worship circuit of the inner temple, there is the idol of Ghanshyam facing northward. This prasadi temple has prasadi items of Swaminarayan displayed in a museum at the temple.

On the southern side of the temple, there is a big neem tree and the chamber of Vasudeva where Swaminarayan gave several discourses which are recorded in the Vachanamrut scripture. The court of Dada Khachar has been preserved in its original form. On the backside, there is the Akshar Ordi temple and Gangajalio well.

<i>Azadirachta indica</i> species of plant

Azadirachta indica, commonly known as neem, nimtree or Indian lilac, is a tree in the mahogany family Meliaceae. It is one of two species in the genus Azadirachta, and is native to the Indian subcontinent, i.e. India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Maldives. It is typically grown in tropical and semi-tropical regions. Neem trees also grow in islands located in the southern part of Iran. Its fruits and seeds are the source of neem oil.

The Vachanamrut of Swaminarayan is the most sacred and foundational scripture of the Swaminarayan spiritual tradition. It contains the profound wisdom of the Vedas, Upanishads, Brahma Sutras, Bhagavad Gita, Bhagavata Purana, dharmashastras like the Yājñavalkya Smṛti, Vidurniti, and epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Swaminarayan says in Gadhadha II-28, "What is this discourse which I have delivered before you like? Well, I have delivered it having heard and having extracted the essence from the Vedas, the shastras, the Purans and all other words on this earth pertaining to liberation."

Swaminarayan and his saints used to take a bath in the Ghela River. [1] This river flows in the south side of the temple. There are prasadi river-beds – Narayan Dharo and Sahasra Dharo which Swaminarayan visited frequently. [1] There are small temples of Neelkanth and Hanuman on the bank of the river.Other holy places are naliyeri dhar for hanuman temple[small mountain],bhakti baug and radhavav which are around 2 km from gadhada(swamina).

In May 2012, the temple's spires were plated with gold, making it the first temple in Gujarat to have golden spires. This exercise cost the temple ₹210 million (US$3.1 million). [5]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 Manohar Sajnani (2006). Encyclopaedia of Tourism Resources in India. Kalpaz Publications. p. 126,127. ISBN   81-7835-014-9.
  2. ↑ http://www.gopinathji.com
  3. ↑ Williams 2001 , p. 119
  4. ↑ "Shree Swaminarayan Temple, Gadhada". Shree NarNarayan Dev Gadi. Retrieved 23 April 2013.
  5. ↑ "Rs 21cr spires for Gujarat's first golden temple". Times of India . 4 May 2012. Retrieved 4 May 2012.

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References

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