We first headed to our colleague’s home in Yardley, Philadelphia, about an hour and a half away (NJ borders Philadelphia on one side, and the two have the Delaware River running in between, which we crossed). Raghav was fast asleep at the back – he did have this habit of catching up on sleep during drives!
Driving in the city
Rakesh was forced to drive within city roads – and here, these were just two-lane roads on each side, but one lane was taken up for car parking; so effectively, it became a 1-lane road on either side, and the divider is just the solid double yellow line painted on the road. In the US, the lines determine some traffic rules – a solid line means you can’t cut across the lane, and a dotted line means you can switch to the other lane.
We found ourselves stuck on the wrong side of a solid double yellow line while the shop we had to go to was on the other side of the road. In India, we would just see if there was incoming traffic and make the turn – but here, Rakesh struggled to find someplace where it was ok to cut across. The same struggle happened when we had to exit the complex to get to the other side of the road.
Even in India, we have a similar road marking system, but on many roads, the lines have disappeared, and in other areas where they exist, barely anyone follows them.
Finally, we got to our colleague’s home, where we were welcomed by his pet, an Alaskan Malamute – they look like Huskies and are large, like a little wolf! It was pretty playful and, I guess, excited seeing 3 visitors in its abode. There are strict rules on taking dogs outside in the US – you can’t let them loose and have to keep them on a leash; Maggie was an attraction outside, and in the short while that we spent outdoors, a little kid came up asking if he could pet it – with so much fur, it’s hard to resist giving it a little rub. They also shed a lot of fur when they shake their bodies. We enjoyed some juice and cheesecakes in our colleague’s home before leaving.
The grand temple
It was about an hour’s drive to Akshardham – as we approached the destination, we noticed a board that said that on weekends, a reservation was needed for entry. The last time Rakesh was here, he didn’t make any bookings – we wondered if this had become so popular that they were issuing entrance tickets. Anyway, since we had come all the way, we decided to check it out – the worst case was that we’d be turned back. There were so many vehicles around, and people still driving in, though it was mid-afternoon.
We did have to sign up online to make a reservation and get entry – Rakesh did so; I guess they were building a database of all visitors – for some reason, this was only for the weekends.
The name of the place is BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham (eternal abode); we’d been to this temple in New Delhi a few years ago, and it is quite impressive; I had heard that the one in the US is even more grand and was curious to see this. You are welcomed by a massive statute of the teenage yogi Neelkanth Varni (this was Swaminarayan’s childhood name) standing on one leg – he is said to have done so for about 2 months and started his spiritual journey at the age of 11. There was a large water body with fountains that we crossed to get into the queue to enter the temple; it moved quickly – and we were soon inside the first hall; it was the reception area that could match the reception of any 5-star hotel – impressive decorations, artwork on the ceiling and pillars, there was an information centre, an orientation centre, small theatres on the sides, drinking water taps etc. The reception area was quite crowded. Dhotis were available for visitors to wear in case they came in shorts; we stepped past it and into the outdoors from where we could see the main temple – it was a sunny day, and the temple looked grand and impressive from the outside.
Inside, there was a place to remove our footwear before entering the main area of the temple in the centre. Because of the crowd in the temple, you stood in a line, and the line was asked to keep moving – so you couldn’t really sit inside the temple. There were many sculptures inside, within their dedicated enclosures – everything was made of white marble; intricate designs on the pillars that probably depicted a story – but we could not spend much time inside since we were asked to keep moving.
Based on what Rakesh said, this was how it was on his first visit here too, and I had heard the same from another person earlier. Maybe weekdays are better? I just wished we could have spent more time inside the temple. Photography inside the temple, just like in most temples, is prohibited. There are signs saying not to touch the marble pillars and carvings – so they have one small area where they’ve kept the marble used in the temple for touching. Some photos/videos of the temple’s interior are available on the official BAPS group website. And some of the Wiki pics I’ve given for reference just so that you get a sense of the grandeur – the place is an incredible sight to behold, just like the one in New Delhi, which is also very impressive.
This temple is among the largest in the world, slightly larger than the famous temple in Trichy (India). Topping the list in size is Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
As we exited the temple, we saw images taken during the construction.
There were visitors of various nationalities here – this was sort of like a tourist site that I guess many had on their to-see list. If you were into religion and spirituality, you’d probably be interested in learning about the group and their philosophy; if you weren’t interested in that, you’d still enjoy the architecture. I’ve found that when you see large Buddha statues, there is a sense of awe that overcomes you; similar is the case when you look at temples that have so many intricate designs from the base to the dome – it’s not just the resultant structure that inspires – you can sense the amount of care and effort that must have gone into making it perfect; that also inspires.
Since we hadn’t had lunch, we headed to the Shanoya cafe inside the temple complex – an all-veggie cafe. On the way, we saw a gift and book shop too – that was also quite crowded; they did seem to have some nice items for sale but we didn’t stop there. The cafe was also a bit crowded, though we were well past lunch hour – they had live counters, boxes that you could pick, a lot of snacks, as well as meals and desserts. Their cafe sales were probably better than what many full-fledged restaurants would make – the food was decent; some items were good, and some were ok – since there were 3 of us, we tried several dishes.
As we headed out, there were still plenty of visitors pouring in.