BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Bartlett, Chicago, IL, 60103
I visited BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir (temple) many times, this is a beautiful temple near to Chicago land and only 35 miles from Downtown. To let you know this is a Desi temple and majority of the visitors are Hindu. All the major Hindu functions are celebrated here so this is a nice place to visit on special Indian occasions.
If you like to know about Indian culture, heritage, people, practice then please visit this mandir on a special function day so that you can enjoy the day and gain some knowledge.
What I like about BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir (temple)
- Free food on special occasions, how can you hate this?
- The design of this mandir is stunning, the interiors are in wood and marvel carving which I loved the most.
- I love temple that practices silence and this is the one so I like it.
- Love to see lots of Desi crowd at one place and chat with them.
What I didn’t like about the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir
- The management people should speak in Hindi (national language of India) or English (international language), not in Gujurati (local language of Gujurat, India) at least.
- Still to find one more issue to add here. I found more complains now. (update: 10/16/2008)
- Girls don’t visit this temple wearing a sleeveless salwar, once the authority of this temple asked my friend to stay out because she was not in proper dress code that can be a jean and top but not a sleeveless salwar. This does surprises me.
- Married women can’t hold their husband’s hand and walk in the temple building, wow, what’s wrong in this? The guards shout when they see such things, I am shocked.
If you guys visited any great temple in North America then share with us what you liked and disliked about the place/management.
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COMMENT
Name: Janardhan Raj
You are wrong I myself have been there and they ask you to wear a blue colored cloth no one that comes to this mandir is asked to stay out!
Also the volunteers speak in the following languages:English;Gujarati;and Hindi (national Language of India).
It is a Gujarati Temple so it makes sence if the staff comunicates in Gujarat.
It is important to consult other sources rather than to post such misguiding information on the internet.
Name: San Nayak
@Janardhan, I am sorry if you are hurt by my post but you are misunderstood at few of my points.
I am going to this mandir for last 8 years.
No one ever asked me to wear blue, this doesn’t mean they don’t say to people to wear blue because i might be wearing a blue color dress every time i visit there. You are never asked to stay away from the temple that doesn’t mean no one is asked for it. I clearly said “once my friend” and she was asked to stay because of a reason that i sited above.
Volunteers do speak in hindi, english and gujurati but couple of times they spoke to me in gujurati and i could answer them in hindi as i understand the language but can’t speak. They should start a discussion in hindi or english and continue to any language they feel comfortable with, this is just a suggesion, no hard feelings please.
You are purely mistaken here. IT IS NOT A GUJARATI TEMPLE, it is a hindu temple built by Swaminarayan sanstha. People of BAPS are not different, they are hindus.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAPS_Shri_Swaminarayan_Mandir_Chicago
I had substantial research and i think i am not wrong at my points it is just not well descriptive to make it clear. Anyway, my life will teach me more about BAPS.