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God Eats Veggie Burgers

(conclusion)

Unlike past BAPS temples, the Chino Hills location will be the first to use a solar- powered electrical system. The temple will install a 60-kilowatt grid-tied solar power system manufactured by GoGreenSolar and is currently asking for donations to help fund its green cause. It is estimated that this 60-kilowatt system will satisfy the new cultural center's energy needs and generate extra power that will be sent to the local grid to bring in revenue. Like all the other temples built by BAPS, the new temple will be erected according to the ancient Hindu Shilpa Shastras?an Indian architectural science that does not use steel reinforcement. No metal is being used, no steel, no nails, nothing that can create corrosion. The entire temple will be stone on stone and load bearers will be used for the walls. The building itself will last, but the mechanics will need replacing in about twenty years, said Divyesh Patel. Once finished there will be about 340 carved, solid-rock (and rock solid) columns both supporting and ornamenting the temple. Every element, big and small will be carved from stone. So far all that can be seen through the tearing and tattered holes in the green canvas that surrounds the temple like a fence is a three-foot foundation. Still needed to complete the building are forty-two base isolators (to ensure earthquake safety), concrete, and most importantly stone.

The temple will be made of Italian marble, Indian sandstone, and Turkish limestone. Each stone will be hand-selected by BAPS officials who will travel from the United States to Italy, Turkey, and India to find the perfect whole pieces with the right shade of color. Once they find the stone, it will be shipped to villages in Udaipur, India to be carved and numbered. Finally, over 24,000 parts will make their way to Chino Hills to be assembled like a jigsaw puzzle by the willing hands of volunteers, who work for free, and Rajasthani craftsmen, who are paid no more than two dollars per an hour for their painstaking and irreplaceable work. About one hundred more men, in addition to the five who are already working on the facilities, will be flown from India to complete the carvings and bring the temple to life. Each man will use only a chisel and a hammer to free flowers, religious idols, animals, and other figures and symbols from the stone. Everything from dancing women to elephants and peacocks -- these images will be both sensuous and serene. Once completed, the temple will not only stand at its preordained 71 contested feet, but will be 10,000 square feet in area. To make it a proper Shikharbadh Mandir, the traditional stone temples with domes and pinnacles normally built of sandstone and marble, five spires will be added, and each will be locked in place with a stone key.

This is what the temple will be. This is what all BAPS temples are. This is what they must be. Until the height standard is approved, the lot will stay hidden behind a green canvas fence, because it is not a temple unless it is a size that is approved, not by the Chino Hills city council, but by God, the Lord Swaminarayan. Until the people of Chino Hills and God agree, volunteers and temple-goers must worship Lord Swaminarayan in the reception hall.

This is where I am now. I can see the temple's site from the where I sit. As everyone moves back and forth, lost in prayer, I look out past the snacks and sweets shop and past the open door next to it. I imagine what the temple will be.

A cell phone rings loudly, interrupting the Swami's prayers in the reception hall. A loud melody of beating drums, blaring trumpets and chiming bells drowns out the peaceful hymn. I watch as a flustered grandmother quickly rummages through her purse to silence her too-loud Moto Rzr. And just like that, with a touch of a matriarchal finger, the influence of the western world is silenced. If only the qualms of Chino Hills could be dismissed as neatly as the ring on a cell phone.