It took a combined total of about 4.7 million hours of work by artisans and volunteers to hand-carve about 2 million cubic feet of stone. The four varieties of marble from Italy and limestone from Bulgaria traveled first to India and then over 8,000 miles across the world to New Jersey.
They were then fitted together like a giant jigsaw to create what is now touted as the largest Hindu temple outside India to be built in the modern era, standing on a 126-acre tract. It will open to the public on Wednesday.
"Service and devotion are the two basic elements that form the subtle foundation of how a temple so majestic gets built here in central New Jersey," said Trivedi, who studies the Swaminarayan faith tradition and follows it. Twelve of the 19 plaintiffs have now retracted their allegations and the lawsuit is on hold pending an investigation "with which BAPS continues to cooperate fully," Trivedi said.
Trivedi said these allegations weighed heavily on community members because their faith has always taught them "to see the divine in all and love and serve them as manifestations of the divine." He said Pramukh Swami Maharaj, the sect's fifth spiritual successor, who envisioned such a temple campus in the United States, was a progressive guru who cared deeply about social equality.
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