Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Gadhada 
The temple at GadhadaLocation Country: India State: Gujarat Location: Gadhada Architecture and culture Primary deity: Gopinathji Maharaj, HariKrishna Maharaj History Date built: October 9, 1828 Creator: Bhagwan Swaminarayan
The temple at Gadhada
About our Mandir
The land for constructing this temple in Gadhada, was donated by the court of Dada Khachar in Gadhada. Dada Khachar and his family were devotees of Swaminarayan. The temple was made in the courtyard of his own residence.[2] The temple work was planned and executed directly under the consultation and guidance of Swaminarayan. Swaminarayan over viewed the construction in and also helped with the manual service in the construction of the temple, by lifting stones and mortar. This shrine has two stories and three domes. It is adorned with carvings. The temple is placed on a high plinth is a spacious square and has an assembly hall with large dharamshalas and kitchens for ascetics and pilgrims.[1]
Swaminarayan had installed the idols in this temple on the October 9, 1828 . Gopinath and Hari krishna in the middle, Dharma and Bhakti and Vasudeva on the western side and Revti-Baldevji, Shri Krishna and Suryanarayan in the eastern temple. KAUSHIK
Other information
Besides the idols installed by Swaminarayan himself, the temple is a place of many memories of Swaminarayan. On the path of the worship circuit of the inner temple, there is the idol of Ghanshyam facing northward. This prasadi temple has prasadi items of Swaminarayan displayed in a museum at the temple.
On the southern side of the temple, there is a big neem tree and the chamber of Vasudeva. Swaminarayan gave several discourses at that place. The court of Dada Khachar has been preserved in its original form.
On the backside, there is the Akshar Oradi temple and Gangajalio well. Lakshmi wadi (place of cremation of Swaminarayan) is situated a little away from the town. At Lakshmi wadi, a single dome temple has been constructed at the place of the funeral rituals of Swaminarayan's mortal remains. A little ahead, there is one canopy where Swaminarayan used to sit and deliver the discourses, and just a little ahead, there is the room of Nishkulanand Swami, where he placed the palanquin prepared by him for Swaminarayan's last journey. A neem tree faces this place, and on its western side, there is one more canopy where Swaminarayan celebrated ‘Sharadotsava’.
Swaminarayan and his saints used to take a bath in the River Ghelo.[1] This river flows in the south side of the temple. There are prasadi river-beds - Narayan Dharo and Sahasra Dharo which Swaminarayan visited frequently.[1] There are small temples of Neelkanth and Hanuman on the bank of the river.
List of Swaminarayan temples
Swaminarayan, the founder of the Swaminarayan Sampraday, established temples, known as mandirs (Devnagari: स्वामीनारायण मन्दिर), as part of his philosophy of theism and deity worship. These mandirs are known as Swaminarayan Hindu temples.[1]
He constructed nine temples in the following cities; Ahmedabad, Bhuj, Muli, Vadtal, Junagadh, Dholera, Dholka, Gadhpur & Jetalpur. In these temples he installed images of various Hindu gods, such asNarNarayan Dev, LaxmiNarayan Dev, RadhaKrishna Dev, RadhaRaman Dev, Revti-Baldevji, Madan Mohan Dev etc.[2] Each of these nine original temples fall either under the NarNarayan Dev Gadi, Ahmedabad or the LaxmiNarayan Dev Gadi, Vadtal depending on their geographical location.[3]
One of the most prominent features of the heritage of Swaminarayan is temple architecture. The images in the temples built by Swaminarayan are the evidence of the priority of Krishna. All of the temples constructed during his life show some form of Krishna, and all temples since have such worshipable murtis. In the temples of the dioceses of Ahmedabad and Vadtal, they are predominantly a central altar or a shrine. Human forms are predominant for an known exception of a Hanuman temple at Sarangpur, where Hanuman is the central figure.[4] The temples have accommodations for sadhus built next to them. Stones were quarried in far places and carried to the temple sites.[5]
Swaminarayan temples, like other Hindu temples, have walkways around the central shrine to allow worshipers to circumambulate the shrine. These are often decorated with designs and inlaid marble. The main shrine area is divided by railings. One side of the railing is reserved for women, as Swaminarayan propagated that men and women should be separated in temples to allow full concentration on god. Men do a specified number of prostrations (as decided by themselves). In front of the men's section, there is a small section reserved for ascetics and special guests. There is great variety in form and nature of the central images, in front of which are gold- or silver-plated doors that open during darshan.
