What IS Swaminarayan Akshardham?

So I've been asked recently to explain a little bit more about Swaminarayan Akshardham and just what the hell it is that I do here all day long. I think the website is a good resource but maybe not really interesting enough to pore through for a while, so I'll do my best to explain as briefly as I can and still do some justice. This post will be about Akshardham itself.

Swaminarayan Akshardham is a cultural complex that pays tribute to the art, culture, values, and heritage of India. It is made up of a few principal parts:

The main monument itself, seen here at night, is a revival of the ancient tradition of temple-building. The structural design of the monument is based not on modern architectural texts or design methods but according to the age-old shilpa shastras, which contain the formulas, ratios, and methods for assembling a monument like this. The foundation of the monument is complete steel-free. It utilizes no rebar for foundational reinforcement, but instead relies on ~1,000,000 cu. ft. of concrete, laid in eleven separate rafts to support the massive structure. The monument itself, constructed of Rajasthani pink sandstone and Italian Carrara marble is assembled without the use of metal, as well, relying on plugs and keyholes carved into the stones to hold the structure together like a massive jigsaw puzzle. The amount of detail and intricacy must be seen to be believed, but the pictures I have uploaded should give one a small idea of what I am talking about. Over 300,000 pieces of stone were hand-carved in the most amazing detail - over 20,000 individually carved figures cover the entire internal and external facades of the monument. Inside are the murtis of Swaminarayan and His spiritual successors, or Gurus, as well as the murtis of Radha-Krishna, Sita-Ram, Parvati-Shiva, and Laxmi-Narayan. From a philosophical standpoint, their inclusion, along with the 248 murtis on the outer mandover (wall) makes good on Akshardham's promise of paying tribute to all of Hinduism.

The three exhibitions make up an integral part of the story of Akshardham. The first exhibition, Sahajanand Darshan, also called the 'Hall of Values,' depicts the core values of Sanatana Dharma (lit. 'eternal righteousness'), or what has come to be known as Vedic Hinduism via audio-animatronic displays that tell the life-story of Swaminarayan. Swaminarayan, in his time, was widely believed to be the embodiment of these basic values of ahimsa (non-violence), seva (selfless service), humility, and devotion. The story of Swaminarayan continues in the second exhibition, Neelkanth Yatra, which is the destination release of the internationally acclaimed large-format film Mystic India. See the trailer here (.wmv, 2:56) or here (.mov, 1:37), which some of you got to see at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The version at Swaminarayan Akshardham is slightly different, primarily in that it focuses more on the story of Neelkanth, the child yogi (ascetic) who, leaving his house at age 11 to begin a 12,000 Km pilgrimage that would take him to the farthest reaches of India, would eventually come to be known as Lord Swaminarayan. Just watch the trailer. The last exhibition is the Sanskruti Vihar, a cultural exhibition in the form of an indoor boatride through 10,000 years of India's Vedic heritage. Visitors are transported to ancient Vedic markets, the world's first internationally attended university - Takshashila (or Taxila), and through a chronicling of the "ancient discoveries and inventions of the great rishi-scientists of India" (quoted from Swaminarayan Akshardham). These discoveries include revelations in atomic physics, astronomy, precise calculations of pi, the development of the Pythagorean Theorem five centuries BEFORE Pythagoras. These three exhibitions give visitors a view into the history, values, and traditions of India.

The Musical Fountain Show tells the Hindu story of the life cycle of the universe and our lives through water, sound, and light. The combination of these elements imbues the show with a deep symbolism that takes the full length of the show to explain! And the Gardens of Akshardham contain over 900,000 trees, plants, and shrubs that were all grown in-house to transform the barren 100 acres of land upon which Akshardham is built into a green oasis amidst the concrete-filled Delhi. Cast bronze statues in the Bharat Upavan garden depict the heroes and heroines of Indian folklore and the Indian revolution. Lotuses growing in small ponds in the Narayan Sarovar (a small moat-like lake surrounding Akshardham that contains the water of 151 holy lakes and rivers of India) add to the tranquility and serenity of the entire complex.