What compels humans to see God in a stone and to build majestic stone abodes for the divine?
“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will never be shaken.”
As Yogi Trivedi told me, he has been contemplating the 189-foot-tall mahashikhar or central steeple of the Akshardham Mahamandir. As a scholar of religion and a journalist who has taught at Columbia University, he has dedicated his life to thinking about the mission of the Swaminarayan movement and their Hindu temples.
Psychologically, the Swaminarayan movement was a precursor to India's independence movement and led to the rise of stalwarts like Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore, and Sri Aurobindo . Today, the movement is a transnational network of thousands of Hindu temples, actively involved in social service in the local communities.
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