Prime Minister Narendra Modi will pay a two-day visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) starting Tuesday. His seventh trip to the United Arab Emirates since 2015 will coincide with the dedication of the city’s first Hindu temple.
The Prime Minister is going to inaugurate the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) temple in Abu Dhabi on February 14. The temple will subsequently welcome visitors on March 1. The temple complex has a food court, themed gardens, a book and gift shop, prayer halls, exhibition spaces, study places, and facilities for children and youth sports.
According to BAPS, people of all faiths are welcome to visit the temple, which represents unity, to discover more about Hinduism and its spirituality.
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The official announcement of the BAPS Hindu Mandir in Abu Dhabi was made during Prime Minister Modi’s 2018 visit, and the ceremony to lay the foundation stone was held in April 2019. An amphitheatre that resembles the Ganga ghats in India, a dune that is duplicated, and symbolic streams that symbolise the Ganga and Yamuna rivers in India are among the characteristics of the temple, which has seven shikhars, each of which represents an Emirate of the United Arab Emirates. In order to highlight the idea that love is a universal emotion found in all religions, the mandir also integrates lessons from other cultures.
Hiramukh Swami Maharaj, the BAPS president at the time, was brought by devotees to a desert region in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, on April 5, 1997. Swamishri prayed for world peace, national growth, and interreligious harmony while he was in the country. He also mentioned his desire for an Abu Dhabi mandir to be constructed.
BAPS representatives worked with local and political authorities over the next 20 years to secure approval for the mandir’s construction. The UAE government set aside land for the Hindu temple in 2015. Publicly applauding this choice, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his appreciation to the UAE administration. The governments of THE selected BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha and Mandir Limited to construct, grow, and manage the mandir project.
The BAPS Hindu Mandir Abu Dhabi has finally been constructed after many years of labour on a parcel of donated land in the Abu Mureikhah, Al Rahba neighbourhood, adjacent to the Abu Dhabi-Dubai highway and the Abu Dhabi-Sweihan-Al Ain Road. The temple’s seven towers stand in for the UAE’s seven emirates.
Based on sources, the temple is an architectural marvel that was constructed in accordance with ancient Hindu shilpashastras. The interior is finished with handcrafted white marble from India, while the exterior is adorned with pink sandstone from Rajasthan. Over the past three years, over 2,000 artisans from Gujarat and Rajasthan have painstakingly sculpted white marble pillars with elaborate motifs of animals, musicians, and celestial components.
BAPS emphasised that the mandir follows environmentally friendly procedures, lowering its carbon footprint by substituting fly ash for a sizable amount of cement in the concrete mix. The temperature, pressure, stress, and seismic occurrences of the structure are being tracked by more than 300 sensors.
With its distinctive architectural style, the BAPS Hindu Mandir complex seeks to serve as a hub for values, art, and culture. Through its mandirs, centres, and volunteers, BAPS is a global social and spiritual organisation that is focused on community and operated by volunteers. It serves millions of people worldwide.