BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Toronto

BAPS's own chronology traces Swaminarayan satsang in Canada to 1973, when two students began holding Sunday assemblies. Pramukh Swami Maharaj first visited Canada on 27 July 1974, and the sanstha was formally registered in 1977. A hari mandir (smaller shrine) was consecrated in Toronto in 1990, and marble murtis of Akshar-Purushottam Maharaj were installed there in 1991.

In 1996 the community bought an 18-acre site off Highway 427 in Etobicoke for a shikharbaddh mandir, and Pramukh Swami Maharaj performed the foundation-stone (shilanyas) ceremony in 2000. The carved wooden haveli opened first, in 2004; the Globe and Mail described its teak and rosewood columns and noted that it was the first phase of a larger plan.

The stone was carved in India. BAPS states that at the peak more than 1,800 craftsmen worked at 26 sites in Rajasthan, and that over 24,000 carved pieces were shipped to Toronto, where about 400 local volunteers helped assemble them over roughly 18 months of on-site stonework between 2005 and 2007. The murti-pratishtha festival was held from 20 to 22 July 2007, and the mandir was dedicated on 22 July. Hinduism Today reported it as the 650th mandir built under Pramukh Swami Maharaj's leadership.

Since opening, the complex has been used for community events as well as worship. The mandir marked its tenth anniversary in 2017, and in 2021 it hosted a COVID-19 vaccination clinic, as reported by blogTO.

Architecture and sacred features

The mandir is built in the north Indian Nagara idiom used across BAPS shikharbaddh mandirs. BAPS lists five shikhars (pinnacles), one large dome, eleven small domes, 340 pillars in total and a height of 72 feet. The materials it gives are Turkish limestone (2,638 tonnes), Italian Carrara marble (2,260 tonnes) and Indian pink sandstone (about 1,480 tonnes). The heaviest single stone weighs 5.6 tonnes, and the masonry carries its own load without steel, even in the foundations.

The haveli in front of the mandir is carved in Burmese teak in the style of a traditional Indian courtyard mansion, with peacock, lotus and elephant motifs. Visitors enter the whole complex through the haveli doors.