Travel: BAHA'I HOUSE OF WORSHIP

Baha'i House of Worship

This was an adventure I enjoyed all by myself. It was quite exciting being in a strange place, enquiring your way around and exploring. I walked to Karol Bagh Metro Station from Hotel Jewel Palace. It took me about 25 minutes as I stopped now and again to click pictures on my way.

I went up to take a token to Kalkaji Mandir. When asked, the ticket counter clerk explained to me that I needed to take the Blue metro line to Rajiv Chowk; get off there and take the Yellow line to Central Secretariat and then take the Violet line to Kalkaji Mandir Metro Station. 

After walking 3/4 of a km, I reached the compound gate

I must have walked up and down ten flights of stairs before I reached Kalkaji Mandir Metro Station. But even then it had taken me just about an hour while I must have crossed some 20 stations on my way.

The Bahai Temple is about half a kilometre away from the metro or so said a board. I decided to walk asking directions. Yeah, when you complete the ½ km mark, you reach the beginning of the compound railing. You need to walk another 250 metres before you reach the gate.

Its a long but lovely walk to the temple amidst greenery

This temple is again set in a huge ground with lots of grass, trees and flowering plants. It was absolutely cold at about 1 pm. I walked and walked before I reached the temple itself. 

The entry was free of cost. The temple is a beautiful structure designed like a lotus with nine petals, with nine ponds of water tiled in blue in between petals. You can imagine the cold with the wind blowing over the water bodies. The place was fairly crowded with locals and foreigners.

The waterbodies around the temple - there are nine of them

We had to wait in a queue for a few minutes before we were given a small lecture on what the temple is about.

The Bahai House of Worship has temples in seven places around the world and the one in Delhi is the latest. It is an amazing structure and I am sure it is also a ‘portal’ that could move people into another dimension. No one mentioned anything about this. This is just my conjecture that I am sure will be proved over time.

The entrance to the prayer hall

They believe in the path of oneness and do not promote any particular religion or God. The hall within can seat about 3000 people on long wooden chairs with marble seats. They requested us to keep our cameras and mobiles off and also to maintain complete silence while praying to the God of our own faith.

They let us in, in batches. I went in to sit on a bench by myself and the chilled marble felt extremely cold. I looked at the high ceiling and the lovely structure for a while. I realized that there was no time limit to remaining within the temple itself.

I got someone to take a picture of me at Baha'i Temple

I sat there breathing deeply in and out and found peace steal over me completely. I had tears pouring from my eyes as I could completely connect to the divine within these precincts. I must have remained there for more than half an hour, not having the heart to get up and leave.

I walked out after that and the cold air hit me hard. It made me feel hungry. I still walked around a bit, taking pictures and then managed to finally tear myself away from the peaceful temple of oneness.

Look at the antenna at top centre. That's what makes me believe this is a portal.
And what's that shadow? There is no bird out there

It was a wonderful experience and with an overflowing heart, I took a rickshaw back to the metro station.

Click here to know more about Baha’i faith and the temple

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