It’s been more than 6 weeks since I have been in London, and even before I left the divine shores of India, I was asked to visit this temple by my dad. The time had come to visit the temple the weekend that went by. In my mind it was just another temple and I believed it was a temple of Lord Narayana, till I reached the holy place, only to be flabbergasted by the grandeur.
It is good one hour plus journey from central London where I am put up currently, by tube or London underground and then by bus from the stone bridge underground station. As I got off the bus, I was visually stunned to look at a beautiful temple built by the Hindus for the Hindus in London. As expected you head first to cloak room, which reside opposite the entrance of the temple to leave your bag, camera etc and are allowed to carry only your wallet and switched of mobile phone. Then you walk across to enter the temple premise.
If you have ever gone to the ISCON temple in Bangalore, you would start to relate to it for its whiteness, thanks to 5000 tonnes of Italian Marble used to build this temple. Once you enter the premises, you go through an airport type security check. Then for men you turn left to leave your footwear and jackets, before you proceed in to the sanctum sanctorum. Opposite the entrance is the souvenir shop for you to purchase, incense sticks etc.
As you enter the sanctum sanctorum, you find an 3 feet idol of the sage Swami Narayan, and that’s were I realised the temple is about a sage who propagated Hinduism and that it is a sect followed religiously by the Gujarati community and not another temple or Lord Vishnu, where they conduct special puja’s and abhisekham’s. After having a glimpse of the idol, I felt – is that all, till you climb about 20 steps to the first floor to visit the great hall, brilliantly built with marble, fantastically lit and find murti’s of different god. You begin with Lord Ganesha, then Rama, then the different guru’s of the sect, Swami Narayan himself, Lord Shiva and Parvathi. Lord Krishna and end with Lord Hanuman.
As you sit in the hall, you begin to feel the silence in you and once you begin to meditate, you start to touch the soul within you thanks to the calm surrounding. Things seem to come to a stand still, till you feel you have finished with your routine at the temple. As you climb down, you enter a museum kind place for insights on Hinduism. You pay a couple of pounds and have a tour of the same.
As you finish your tour and the around the temple and you walk out to collect your belongings, right round the corner, you can find a Gujarati restaurant and an Indian supermarket run by the trust. It had already been a long afternoon and it was time to indulge into the great India Samosa and some batata vada.
As we walked around this great monument in North London towards the bus stand, you feel privileged about being a Hindu. I would say a must see for all in London.
This place gives you so much inner peace when compared to fast paced life of London.
It is good one hour plus journey from central London where I am put up currently, by tube or London underground and then by bus from the stone bridge underground station. As I got off the bus, I was visually stunned to look at a beautiful temple built by the Hindus for the Hindus in London. As expected you head first to cloak room, which reside opposite the entrance of the temple to leave your bag, camera etc and are allowed to carry only your wallet and switched of mobile phone. Then you walk across to enter the temple premise.
If you have ever gone to the ISCON temple in Bangalore, you would start to relate to it for its whiteness, thanks to 5000 tonnes of Italian Marble used to build this temple. Once you enter the premises, you go through an airport type security check. Then for men you turn left to leave your footwear and jackets, before you proceed in to the sanctum sanctorum. Opposite the entrance is the souvenir shop for you to purchase, incense sticks etc.
As you enter the sanctum sanctorum, you find an 3 feet idol of the sage Swami Narayan, and that’s were I realised the temple is about a sage who propagated Hinduism and that it is a sect followed religiously by the Gujarati community and not another temple or Lord Vishnu, where they conduct special puja’s and abhisekham’s. After having a glimpse of the idol, I felt – is that all, till you climb about 20 steps to the first floor to visit the great hall, brilliantly built with marble, fantastically lit and find murti’s of different god. You begin with Lord Ganesha, then Rama, then the different guru’s of the sect, Swami Narayan himself, Lord Shiva and Parvathi. Lord Krishna and end with Lord Hanuman.
As you sit in the hall, you begin to feel the silence in you and once you begin to meditate, you start to touch the soul within you thanks to the calm surrounding. Things seem to come to a stand still, till you feel you have finished with your routine at the temple. As you climb down, you enter a museum kind place for insights on Hinduism. You pay a couple of pounds and have a tour of the same.
As you finish your tour and the around the temple and you walk out to collect your belongings, right round the corner, you can find a Gujarati restaurant and an Indian supermarket run by the trust. It had already been a long afternoon and it was time to indulge into the great India Samosa and some batata vada.
As we walked around this great monument in North London towards the bus stand, you feel privileged about being a Hindu. I would say a must see for all in London.
This place gives you so much inner peace when compared to fast paced life of London.
hey priyesh,,,,,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Ramya.I want your help.Can u please tell me where is the Swami Narayana temple in Wembley??I mean,how to go there from Hendon?Please suggest me.Thankyou.