Abu Dhabi: In an unprecedented testament to unity, diversity, and collective harmony, Brahmaviharidas Swami of BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha recently shared a profound perspective during an interview conducted by Viinay Sarikonda, shedding light on the awe-inspiring ethos behind the BAPS Hindu Mandir in Abu Dhabi.

“Imagine a temple where the land is donated by a Muslim king, where our lead architect is a Christian Catholic, where our organization, BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, is Hindu. A Hindu temple is being built, where the project director is a Sikh, where the construction is manned by Parsis, and where, if you look into it, the person who is designing our foundations is a Buddhist, where people from all across the world our lead consultant is a person of no religion, an atheist, and also one of our directors is from Jain. Tradition. Can you imagine so much harmony? And all these people are coming forward in charity because they believe this temple is a spiritual oasis for global harmony. It will have beautiful seven shikhars, and in those Will have beautiful seven shikhars. And in those seven shikhars which are symbolically representing the seven emirates, but there will be the seven main deities of our culture, one will be Akshay Purushottam, the other Radhakrishna, Sitaram, Shiva Parvati, a beautiful whole spire for Aya, Tirupati, Balaji and Jagannathji, north, east, west, south. And those shikhars which will rise, they are all done from stone, but it will have the entire story of the deity carved. So in the Ramakrishna, if you look at the shikhar, the story of Rama ramayan will be carved in the Ramashikhar and the story of Krishna, Bhagavatam and Mahabharata will be carved. They’ve already been carved complete Shiva Puran, the story of Ayapaji, Tirupatiji, Jagannathji, Swaminarayan are all beautiful, carved for centuries ahead. And so, the temples which the shikhars and the temple which is being created, it is hand-carved by almost 3000 craftsmen in India. We are shipping everything and it is going to be built to last 1000 years or more. It’s an ecofriendly temple where using natural material, where even the foundations are done with minimum carbon footprint and everything that’s going to be used is going to sustain environment. So, if you look at it scientifically, sustainable temple, if you look at it culturally, then the traditional art of our Indian artisans is being brought here. If you look at it spiritually, then all the deities are there. This is historic and iconic. And I would want that all the love and all the support that people can give, because this is one of its kind in the world,” stated Swami Brahmaviharidas.