All of the temples constructed during his life show some form of Krishna, and all temples since have such worshipable figures, or murtis. The images in the temples built by Swaminarayan are the evidence of the priority of Krishna. One of the most prominent features of the heritage of Swaminarayan is its temple architecture. In a span of six years, from 1822 till 1828, Swaminarayan sanctioned the construction of nine mandirs in Gujarat: Ahmedabad, Mooli, Bhuj, Vadtal, Jetalpur, Dholera, Dholka, Junagadh and Gadhada. This emphasis on devotion culminated in the building of mandirs, which served as permanent places of worship, centres for religious gathering, instruction, the study of Sanskrit, devotional music and Vedic literature, and as centres of social services where alms, medicines and clothes were available to the poor and needy. Towards the end of his second decade of work, he placed a greater emphasis on devotion than detachment – vairagya to foster love for God. Radha Krishna Dev with Harikrishna Maharaj at VadtalĪs an adjunct to the scriptures in establishing ultimate redemption and consolidating the framework of the holy fellowship (Satsang), Swaminarayan constructed stone mandirs, buttressing Upasana – worshipping God, and devotion towards the deities.
One side of the railing is reserved for women, as Swaminarayan propagated that men and women should be separated in temples to allow full concentration on god. The main shrine area is divided by railings. These are often decorated with designs and inlaid marble. Swaminarayan temples, like other Hindu temples, have walkways around the central shrine to allow worshipers to circumambulate the shrine. Stones were quarried in far places and carried to the temple sites. The temples have accommodations for sadhus built next to them. Human forms are predominant but for a known exception of a Hanuman temple at Sarangpur, where Hanuman is the central figure. In the temples of the dioceses of Ahmedabad and Vadtal, they are predominantly a central altar or a shrine. All of the temples constructed during his life show some form of Krishna, and all temples since have such worshipable murtis. One of the most prominent features of the heritage of Swaminarayan is temple architecture. Each of these nine original temples fall either under the NarNarayan Dev Gadi, Ahmedabad or the LaxmiNarayan Dev Gadi, Vadtal depending on their geographical location. In these temples he installed images of various Hindu gods, such as NarNarayan Dev, LaxmiNarayan Dev, RadhaKrishna Dev, RadhaRaman Dev, Revti-Baldevji, Madan Mohan Dev etc. He constructed nine temples in the following cities Ahmedabad, Bhuj, Muli, Vadtal, Junagadh, Dholera, Dholka, Gadhpur & Jetalpur. These mandirs are known as Swaminarayan Hindu temples. Swaminarayan, the founder of the Swaminarayan Sampraday, established temples, known as mandirs ( Devnagari: मन्दिर), as part of his philosophy of theism and deity worship.