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Devotees throng Akshardham temple on first day

     New Delhi: Hundreds of devotees made a beeline on Tuesday to offer prayers at the Akshardham temple on the banks of the Yamuna in New Delhi. The 130 feet-high Akshardham temple, a magnificent structure in pink sandstone and white marble, was commissioned by the Swaninarayan Sect in 2001 and is the second of its kind in the country. The structure stands amidst a sprawling complex of gardens, meditation centres and Vedic schools in Gujarat and had hit headlines in 2002 when two suicide attackers belonging to a PoK based terrorist group entered its compound and opened fire, killing 24 people. The sect this time has however, taken no chances and the New Delhi temple surpasses its original in grandeur, scale and security with hundreds of private securitymen giving support to the state police. "I have come to visit the temple. It's beautiful. I can't describe it. You have to see it, said Paras, a devotee. "It was quite amazing. The kind of resources that have been used is startling, so we wanted to find out, " said Shalini Sharma, another devotee. Inspired by the beautiful architecture at temples in Badrinath, Somnath and Konark, the elaborate shrine is a confluence of the ancient and the modern with an IMAX theatre for showing documentaries on the sect, two exhibition halls and a restaurant modelled on the famous Ellora caves. The imposing multi-storied structure houses a golden idol of Lord Swaminarayan, an 18th century Hindu monk who started the sect. Swaminarayan's followers believe him to be an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, the Hindu god of preservation. The sect says the monument is made entirely of 6,000 tonnes of stone with no steel or cement used at all, to ensure it will last for a thousand years. The sect has 450 temples in 45 countries and its temple in Neasden, London is considered a landmark for its architecture.