Essay On Visit To The Hindu Temple

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1. I decided to visit the Hindu temple BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Atlanta in Lilburn, GA on April 12th, 2016. I have lived five minutes away from the temple ever since it was built. I was very excited to finally go inside and observe it. 2. When I first arrived at the temple, I had to go through gates. At the gate was a small building where a man sits. He asked me for my name and opened the gate for me (he also thought I was Hindu and was speaking to me in Hindu). I went at 10:00 in the morning so there was not many people there. However, there was a few. The exterior was beautiful. I was so amazed at all the detail that the temple has outside and inside. I have never seen so much detail in my life. I also felt bad for the person who had …show more content…

I was allowed too take pictures until a certain point. I did not read the sign, but as soon as I took my phone out, two securities came and told me to put it away. There were small statues of deities all around the temple. To me, it felt like they kept repeating the same statues every so often. When I walked through the door, I had to take off my shoes. It did not bother me because I also take off my shoes when I walk into a masque. There was a rack to place the shoes; however, I did not see that there were separate shoe rooms for males and females. It was very quiet on the inside. Most of the exhibits were closed. I walked into the one that was open. It was a small square room with a small statue of “teenage Yogi” (at least that is what I remember his name was). On the walls were posters explaining the journey that he took. There was a Hindu priest on the floor reading from a book. When he saw me, he got up and filled up metal jugs with water and placed it on a small table in front of the statue. I stood there and waited for something to happen. Two hindu women and a hindu man walked into the room. They closed their eyes and said some words. Then the two women started to pour water on the statutes feet …show more content…

He did not speak to me. I walked in. The lights were dim and there were blue glowing lights on the ground. Columns of carved rock covered the Mandir; they were carvings of deities. Around the room were small, opened rooms for each of the deities. There was about ten in the room. Each one was either a male or female. I noticed that a majority of them had four arms, and the trunk of an elephant as noses. Once again, there was detail everywhere. Some of the statues wore animal parts as clothes; while others (especially the males) wore a bright orange wrap. I looked up and noticed the beautiful carved ceiling. It reminded me of a church, but there they often have paintings. I did not attend a service. I may have understood this part wrong. However, I understood that they close the temple almost every hour for a reason that I am not sure of. I did see people praying. I noticed that the women pray sitting down. One man was standing in front of a statue and next thing I know his whole body is on the floors worshiping the deities. The women also had in their hands a round string with beads on it; in Islam we also use something similar to it and it is called

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