Prime Minister John Key attended the Janmashtami celebration at BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Avondale.
On his arrival, the Prime Minister first visited the Pramukh Swami Youth Centre where youngsters took part in a display of regular weekly activities such as classical music and dance, karate, Gujarati learning and satsang class.
Next, he had darshan in the mandir where he learnt about the life and teachings of Bhagwan Swaminarayan. Finally, he attended the Janmashtami celebration in the assembly hall where the youths had earlier performed a drama, “Paksh”, depicting a scene from the Mahabharat.
Balaks welcomed the Prime Minister with a swagat dance. Then, a short video presentation of Swaminarayan Akshardham in New Delhi was shown. After that, Jnanpurush Swami formally welcomed the Prime Minister.
The BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha reached out in this time of need by presenting the Prime Minister with a cheque of $11,000 towards the Canterbury earthquake relief fund. At the same time, BAPS volunteers pledged to continue with their support by collecting more funds from the wider community through a BAPS Earthquake Appeal Project.
The Prime Minister mentioned in his address, “Thank you for the extraordinary generosity, your gift of $11,000, which I will give to the earthquake relief fund tomorrow morning. It is good to be here to celebrate the birth of Krishna and to support you and your faith. New Zealand is very lucky. We have now over 100,000 New Zealanders of Indian ethnicity. I had an opportunity earlier to visit your youth centre, and can I say how impressive it was.
“It was wonderful to see the opportunities you are providing for your young people. One of the reasons that the Indian community is so strong and so successful in New Zealand is because of its beliefs in families and to the respect that the children show for their parents and their grandparents, and for the wider family community"
Accompanying the Prime Minister on his visit was Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi, MP, representing Manukau East.