International Swaminarayan Satsang Mandal
The International Swaminarayan Satsang Mandal (ISSM) is a religious organisation of the Hindu faith based in USA. It comes under the Laxminarayan Dev Gadi of the Swaminarayan Sampraday. [1] The organisation has temples and centres in various parts of the country as well as a temple in Scarborough, Ontario (Canada).[2]
"International Swaminarayan Satsang Mandal" is a federally registered trade mark of ISSO of Chicago, Inc. in the USA.
Temples
ISSM originally had six temples under it, all of them being named Vadtal Dham after Vadtal in India, where the headquarters of the parent organisation is located.[3] The temple in Grand Prairie is an exception, being named Gadhpur Dham after the Swaminarayan temple in Gadhada. [4]
- Grand Prairie: Opened on 4 July 1991, when the image of Swaminarayan in the form of Ghanshyam was installed by Acharya Shree Ajendraprasad Pande of the Vadtal Gadi. [4]
- Chicago (Wheeling): This temple was dedicated in 1992. [5] The central deity in this temple is Swaminarayan in the form of HariKrishna. [6]
- New Jersey: Dedicated on 11 July 2004. [7] The central deities at this temple are Lakshmi Narayan and Rancchodrai along with Swaminarayan in the form of Hari Krishna. [8]
- Downey: This temple was dedicated in 2000. [9] The temple has images of Lakshmi Narayan and Swaminarayan in the form of Ghanshyam. [10]
Since the authoring of this article, all of the above temples except Chicago have removed themselves from ISSM and now participate an independent to-be-named organization[11]
Notes
- ↑ Williams 2004, pp. 145
- ↑ "North American Hindus call for a New Direction on Terrorism".
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Williams 2001, pp. 229
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Shree Swaminarayan Satsang Mandal, Grand Prairie, Texas".
- ↑ Williams 2004, pp. 168
- ↑ "Shree Swaminarayan Temple, Wheeling (IL)".
- ↑ "Shree Swaminarayan Temple".
- ↑ "Shree Swaminarayan Mandir - Vadtal Dham".
- ↑ "Past events: Downey".
- ↑ "Swaminarayan Mandir, Downey".
- ↑ http://www.iswaminarayan.org/ - Showing temples that are no longer under the ISSM banner.
References
- Williams, Raymond (2001). Introduction to Swaminarayan Hinduism. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-65422-7.
- Williams, Raymond (2004). Williams on South Asian Religions and Immigration: Collected Works. Ashgate Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-7546-3856-1.
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