Dear Readers,
The weather here is as confusing to me as a dream but I am loving every bit of it. My husband and I went to the BAPS Swaminarayan Temple in Toronto recently, and needless to say, it was an experience. The Gujarati community is strong in the Greater Toronto Area. Adorned in Italian marble, and stone carvings, the temple itself is magnificent. We went in for darshan, took our blessings and proceeded towards the common area where we acquainted ourselves with several fellow devotees, some of them Christian by faith. The aura of the temple was divine and my husband and I couldn't be more at peace.
For the uninitiated, the temple was dedicated to the people of Canada on July 22, 2007 by HDH Pramukh Swami Maharaj in a ceremony that was attended by then prime minister of Canada Stephen Harper, then premier of Ontario Dalton McGuinty, then high commissioner of India Rajamanjinarayan, and then mayor of Toronto, David Miller. While the temple community is comparatively small with just 500 families involved, the number of devotees walking each day is significant and comprises of people of all faith and backgrounds.
The idea of the temple was rooted way back in 1973, when two gentlemen, Bhagwanjibhai Mandaviya and Ghanshyambhai M Patel separately arrived in Canada after taking blessings from Yogiji Maharaj. Inspired by letters from Pujya Pramukh Swami Maharaj, they soon began regular Sunday Satsang assemblies. A small assembly was held in United Methodist Church, near Niagra Falls, during Pujya Pramukh Swami's maiden visit to Canada in 1974. By the next year, 15 families had joined the satsang. Diwali and Annakut was celebrated in a church. In 1977, Pujya Pramukh Swami visited Toronto for the second time, met then solicitor-general of Canada, Bop Kaplan and got the sanstha officially registered. Bhagwanji Mandaviya was appointed as president and GM Patel secretary.
Swamishri visited Canada for the third time to promote awareness of Bhagwan Swaminarayan Bicentenary Celebrations in 1980. Decision to establish the temple was made in 1984, during his fourth visit to Canada, and in 1988, his fifth visit, the Canadian Parliament honoured Pramukh Swami's contributions to the society. He conducted the murti-pratishtha of hari mandir in Toronto during his sixth visit to Canada in 1990. He consecrated marble murtis of Shri Akshar Purushottam Maharaj in Toronto during his seventh visit in 1991. He visited the country again in 1994, and in 1996 and in his presence an 18-acre land was purchased off Highway 427 in Etobicoke for a shikharbaddh Mandir. In 2000, he performed shilanyas ceremony for new BAPS temple. The traditional Haveli was inaugurated in 2004 during Swamishri's eleventh visit.
It took steady perseverance on Swamishri's part to make the temple a part of Canada's history. However, he was supported by several volunteers who give hundreds of hours in helping with the temple construction between 2005 and 2007. They also performed several austerities, like praying for the completion of the project. Every day a devotee observed a nirjala fast, thus a continuous sequence of fasts was observed by the devotees. Even people who had recently arrived in the country donated all their savings for the temple.
Children and teenagers helped in keeping the temple clean and safe, and women gathered on the first Sunday of every month to observe a Malathon in which they turned the mala to pray for the temple. Every stone of the mandir is seeped in history and hard work of all the people who have been instrumental in making Pujya Pramukh Swami's dream a reality.
