BAPS Temple is truly worth the trip
So here’s your weekend plans: You’re going to go to the world’s biggest Hindu temple this side of India. It’s in Robbinsville, it’s called Swaminarayan Akshardham and the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir is the “temple” part, and for those of you who haven’t been — like myself, until this last Sunday — you’re missing out.
To be clear: My wife and I went, and took out three kids — aged 13, 12, and 9 — and they didn’t complain. Not once. That’s how cool this place is.
I’m not going to sit here and explain the Hindu religion — I don’t know anything about it.
I’m not going to sit here and explain who Bhagwan Swaminarayan was, because I don’t know much about him outside of the fact there’s a 49-foot statue of him outside the complex.
Fact is, I’m not going to explain anything about anything here, because I don’t know anything.
All I do know is this place is as cool and wild as anything I’ve ever seen in my life.
The complex is huge, for starters. Hard to wrap your mind around it. And they’re still building, so just wait until they’re done.
Once you walk in, you find yourself in a visitor’s center, where you’re asked to watch a short 8-minute film about the religion and the site you’re visiting. From there, it’s off to the mandir (the temple) where your brain will, quite simply, break.
Everything, from floor to ceiling, is hand-carved Italian Carrara marble, Indian pink stone and limestone. It gives new meaning to the word “intricate.” I’m telling you — your brain can’t fathom it. It’s … everywhere. Even taking a small section of it, and looking at it, and inspecting it, your brain starts short-circuiting. Then when trying to take in all of it? Well, you can’t. It’s simply too much. It’s awe-inspiring.
As an added bonus for all my non-Hindu friends reading this, the place was absolutely jampacked with Hindu people in various stages of prayer and worship. So while I’m walking around, mouth agape, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people actively being all religious and stuff.
It was, probably, 99.8 percent Hindu people there, but know this: We were made to feel incredibly welcome. No one seemed put out by the dopey white folk. So that’s nice.
After all this is over, there’s a little Indian grocery for snacks and stuff, and what amounts to a giant Indian food court, which, I promise you, we were all over and it was delicious. Bonus: They have pizza and French fries as well for kids who aren’t particularly adventurous.
All told, we were probably there for 2.5 hours, and it was pretty cool and awe-inspiring. This is one of those things that if it were in a foreign country, it would be in Fodor’s.
And it’s right here in our backyard. Wild.
UPDATE: We went back again. Again, zero complaints from the kids. We went late afternoon, and the sun was setting and it was even more incredible. Also, they’re building a bigger, main temple behind the one they have and it’s going to be … unreal. Seriously. This is worth a visit.