Swaminarayan Temple in Atlanta

Posted by Harsh Nevatia Sep 11, 2007

The Pramukh Swami Maharaj dedicated a Hindu temple on August 26, 2007, in the Lilburn suburb of Atlanta. The temple, known as Shree Swaminarayan Mandir, is built on a 29 acres plot and its interior are is 27,000 square feet. The architecture is traditional with 13 domes and 5 spires. The construction took a year and a half and cost $19 million.

The temple is symbolic of the growing cosmopolitan nature of Lilburn and of the cooperation that exists between the different communities. The mayor of Lilburn, Jack Bolton, acknowledges and welcomes the diversity as a positive sign for the future of Lilburn.

The temple is made only from stone. No steel or metals were used. The outside is made using Turkish limestone, the interiors from Italian marble and the foundation from Indian pink sandstone. In all 106,000 cubic feet of stone were used in the construction. The stone sections were hand carved in India and then assembled on site as per the design. The message that the organization is giving out that people from all over the world can come here to imbibe the ancient heritage and culture of India.

There are eleven Swaminarayan temples in Southeast United States. However they are much smaller. The Lilburn temple will be the fifth largest Swaminarayan temple outside India. The other four are in Chicago, London, Houston and Nairobi.

The temple has been constructed by the BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, which is a socio-spiritual organization. This sect of Hinduism was founded over 200 years ago by the spiritual leader Bhagwan Swaminarayan. Today over a million followers all over the world subscribe to this sect.