page_title: BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Houston
section_title: Mandir and daily rituals
hierarchical_section_title: BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Houston / Mandir and daily rituals
context_page_description: The BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir of Houston, Texas is a traditional Hindu temple built by the BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha. It is in unincorporated Fort Bend County, Texas, within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of Stafford and with a Stafford mailing address.
  The BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, which is headed by Mahant Swami Maharaj, is a denomination of the Swaminarayan branch of Hinduism. It consists of a 11,500-square-foot, 73-foot tall open-air temple and a 25,620-square-foot surrounding deck. By July 2004 the cost to build the temple was $7 million at that time. The temple materials were carved out of Italian marble and Turkish limestone by 3,000 craftsmen in various parts of India. The pieces were shipped to Houston, and construction began in March 2002. 175 volunteers, including some individuals resident in India, came to the Houston area to help build the temple. Most of the labor was donated. Up until the opening, some finishing touches to the structure were made. The marble and limestone add up to 33,000 pieces. The mandir was built in 28 months.
  The mandir is the largest of its kind in Texas and was constructed according to guidelines outlined in ancient Hindu scriptures.
context_section_description: The temple is a type of ‘Shikarbaddha’ mandir, built according to principles laid out in the Shilpa Shastras, Hindu texts prescribing standards of sacred architecture. Within the mandir, murtis (sacred images of the deities) have been installed in different shrines. The central shrine holds the murti of Swaminarayan, with Gunatitanand Swami to his left, together worshipped as Akshar-Purushottam Maharaj. Similarly, different shrines hold murtis of other Hindu deities such as Radha Krishna, Shiva Parvati, Sita Ram, Hanuman, Ganapati and the lineage of BAPS gurus who are Swaminarayan's spiritual successors.
  The murtis are made from marble and are considered to be imbued with the living presence of divine beings. Accordingly, Swaminarayan swamis (Hindu monks) offer devotional worship to the deities throughout the day. Before dawn, they awaken the deities by singing morning hymns, called prabhatiya. The deities are then bathed and offered food and garments depending on the time of the day and season. Food that has been offered to the deities is considered sanctified. These holy offerings are distributed to the devotees as prasadam. Throughout the day, arti, a ritual where devotees sing the glory of God while a lighted wick is circulated before the murtis, is performed five times a day and named mangala aarti, shanagar aarti, rajabhoga aarti, sandhya aarti and shayana aarti, respectively. During midday, lunch is offered. In the evening, dinner is offered. Finally, the swamis put the murtis to rest by adorning them with night garments. While food is being offered to the murtis and when they are put to rest, their chamber doors are closed.
caption: Aarti being performed
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