BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir Gondal

Getting there

• By air

  Rajkot airport is the nearest, only about 40 km from Gondal.

• By train

  Gondal railway station, under the Bhavnagar railway division, serves Gondal city.

• By road

  Buses run directly from all major cities of Gujarat.

Why devotees come here

BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir in Gondal, a city of about 115,000 residents in Rajkot district, Gujarat, stands above Akshar Deri, the shrine at the cremation spot of Gunatitanand Swami. Hundreds of thousands of people visit Akshar Deri. The darshan hours and travel options are below.

Akshar Deri is a holy shrine that commemorates the cremation spot of Gunatitanand Swami. He was the choicest disciple and first successor of Swaminarayan, and devotees revere him as the ideal Bhakta. Pilgrims come to honour him at the spot where his cremation took place. It is a holy place of pilgrimage in the Swaminarayan Sampraday. Devotees come to make a new wish, or after a wish has been fulfilled. Legend says a Patel walking towards Akshar Deri met a radiant 16-year-old ascetic, who was Shriji Maharaj himself.

Gunatitanand Swami passed away at 12.40 a.m. in 1867, in Gondal. A shrine called Akshar Deri was built to mark the place of his cremation. Inside it is a carved black stone charanarvind (the sacred feet) of Swaminarayan. Thousands of devotees come for darshan and pray for their wishes to be fulfilled. Shastriji Maharaj later built a three-shikhar mandir above the shrine.

Tips for your visit

• Devotees perform prayers, mahapuja, prostrations and circumambulations (pradakshina) at the shrine.
• The temple's phone numbers are listed on the official Rituals page, under the address.

Questions people ask