BAPS Los Angeles Marks America's 250th Anniversary Alongside Spiritual Shibir in Chino Hills

🪔 BAPS Campus Fellowship and the 2026 Satsang Shibir in Los Angeles

The BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Los Angeles, located at 15100 Fairfield Ranch Road in Chino Hills, California, has developed a reputation as one of the premier centers for Hindu spiritual education in the American Southwest. Among its most visible outreach programs is the BAPS Campus Fellowship initiative, which has extended mandir-organized Diwali celebrations to college campuses across the region. A twenty-two-image gallery documents the Campus Fellowship Diwali Celebration held at the University of California, Los Angeles, marking the Hindu festival of lights with programming tailored for students and young adults. That tradition of reaching beyond the mandir's walls continued in the summer of 2026, when Los Angeles-area devotees joined a North America-wide Satsang Shibir held on July 31, 2026. The spiritual retreat was organized around the theme Antar ma Akshar Purushottam, pointing to the theological heart of the Swaminarayan tradition and its understanding of the relationship between the divine and the devotee. Participants engaged in inspiring discourses led by spiritual leaders, interactive group activities, and dedicated periods of personal spiritual reflection, all aimed at deepening adherents' understanding of Akshar-Purushottam upasana. The Shibir drew devotees from across the greater Los Angeles region and the broader North American BAPS network, reinforcing the Chino Hills mandir's role as a central anchor for Swaminarayan Hindu practice in Southern California. The mandir can be reached at (909) 614-5000. [1]

🎉 Kids' Diwali Tradition and America's 250th Anniversary Celebrations at Chino Hills

The BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Chino Hills has long prioritized engaging the youngest members of its congregation in the rhythms of Hindu festival life. On October 21, 2017, the mandir hosted a Kids' Diwali Celebration, an event captured in a gallery of twenty-nine photographs from the Chino Hills campus. The celebration reflected the organization's belief that Hindu festivals such as Diwali should be living traditions, transmitted across generations through joyful, hands-on participation. That same spirit of active engagement extended into civic life in 2026. For the United States' 250th anniversary of independence on July 4, 2026, BAPS Hindu mandirs across North America, including the Los Angeles-area congregation at Chino Hills, joined their local communities to mark the historic milestone. The programming encompassed service projects carried out alongside community organizations, interfaith gatherings that brought together people of varied backgrounds, open houses welcoming neighbors and visitors to mandir grounds, patriotic displays, and broader community outreach. Organizers described the events as rooted in a sense of gratitude for the religious freedom that has allowed Hindu communities to practice their faith openly in the United States, and as an expression of the values of unity, service, and civic engagement that BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha has championed across North America. The Chino Hills mandir, serving the greater Los Angeles South Asian community, continues to stand as a focal point for cultural and civic life throughout the region. [3]

Sources: [1] BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha · [3] BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha