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View Full Version : New Canadian Swaminarayan Mandir Set to Open



satay
19 July 2007, 12:52 AM
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/233400

TORONTO, CANADA, July 7, 2007: Welcome to the new Canada now taking shape at Highway 427 and Finch Ave., it comes in the form of one of the most extraordinary buildings ever seen in this country. Though the name, Swaminarayan Mandir, won't mean much to most Canadians, no one could help but notice this remarkable structure. The local Hindu community (there are 191,305 Hindus in Toronto, according to Statistics Canada), which paid for the $40 million building without any public or foundation funding and provided 400 volunteer workers, wants the world to know it has arrived.

saidevo
19 July 2007, 04:19 AM
Congratulations and thanks to the columnist Christopher Hume for a real spiritual (as against sensational) reporting that flows melliferous to the ears as the reader's eyes pick up his beautifully sculpted words that describe the aesthetics of the building. Almost every word of his stands out, specially the following:



The Swaminarayan complex is a building that can be read almost like a book; it relates a narrative and speaks to users and visitors much as early cathedrals once spoke to Christians. The iconography here is not about heaven and hell, however, reward and retribution, but about peace and pleasure.
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This unique combination of ancient techniques and modern technology, which complement one another much more naturally than one might expect, allowed the complex to be finished in record time.
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What's interesting here is how decoration isn't applied to the building, but how it becomes the building.
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Things won't change overnight, but don't forget, first we shape our buildings, and then they shape us.


May the Almighty God inspire the people of Canada to set an example of a truly multicultural and harmonious relationship among themselves.

Baobobtree
29 July 2007, 01:24 AM
I happen to have some friends from the Gujarat region who visit Toronto quiet frequently. They're family happens to be devotees of Swaminarayan. Needless to say they'll be thrilled to hear this.