BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir San Francisco

Google Nice place of worship for Indians.5 stars

Google Patels place5 stars

Google One of the famous Hindu religion's Swaminarayan temple. Great place for meditation, if you go early in the morning. The temple itself is work of art and you can really see the artistic talent it must have taken to designed it. They've a building with devotion education as well. In addition, they've knowledge base small museum type facility, which houses many great Indian innovation, and information on how they came about. There is facility where they sell Indian groceries and other items. The store also sells cooked in house items, which are of great quality and healthy. Keep in mind the food cooked and sold here are onion and garlic free. They also have buffet lunch and dinner which is of great quality for fraction of a restaurant price. The store also has great Indian street food delicacy in the weekends.5 stars

Google A great devotional place to visit5 stars

Google Livley religious place .Very helpful voluenteers5 stars

Yelp I visit this temple during Indian festivals, they do celebrate most of the Hindu festivals. You get to meet a lot of people from and out of your community. Additionally, they sell very authentic Indian snacks (mostly Gujarati) that you may hardly find anywhere around.5 stars

Yelp The aesthetics of this temple (and other BAPS) are very beautiful, the veg food is amazing, and people here are clearly very devoted to their beliefs and the community. BAPS is also a very traditional organization in respect to their rituals and beliefs. The community has surprising expectations for the level of money you should be donating to the temple (which starts early), have traditional ideas about gender hierarchy (women sit behind men, have caregiving positions), and primarily cater to the Gujarati language and culture. These are things I don't see at Hindu temples in the area which is why I mention them. It is good to know what you are walking into if you chose to come here. Being from a different culture or even a different region of India this temple may not feel familiar to you. They make few accommodations to help those who don't speak the language or know the culture. They will give you a cheat sheet of words, but you may feel left out as everyone speaks to you in Gujarati even if they suspect you don't speak the language. Just know it is designed for a specific group of people and the organization isn't necessarily looking to be inclusive.2 stars

Yelp I have been attending this temple for about seven years now and it's a great place to make new friends and learn more about Hindu culture and religion. There are plenty of activites for different age groups, especially children.5 stars

Yelp Excellent temple with great leadership -- wonderful priest and peoples to educate people within the Hindu Diaspora and outside of it about the Hindu cultural and religious history of India. Terrific programs for children to learn about for those with younger ones who wish to inform their children about this beautiful tradition and practice. The store inside while modest in size is an outstanding resource for all who visit. I highly recommend this temple all around; especially for visiting for the Sunday evening aarti which is always so well done with a meal to follow.5 stars

Yelp This is an excellent Hindu mandir. It is a great place to visit around Hindu festivals, especially Diwali. They have regular programs for children, young professionals, older men & older women. Many times in the year, the santos (saints - those who have taken vows to be in the BAPS order) visit. The murtis (icons) inside the mandir represent various divinities holy to Hindus. They have people who can explain Hinduism to you. They also have a store to purchase material about Hinduism, to practice Hinduism, & vegetarian food items & general groceries. This temple is part of the BAPS Hindu sampradaya (sect). Their Milpitas temple is larger. The Chino Hills, CA temple that is opening Dec 2012 is a mega temple with authentic Hindu temple construction.5 stars