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Thread: Temples of North America

  1. #21
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    Re: Temples of North America

    namaste,

    Going to have darshan of varadaraja next week here http://www.hindumandirmn.org/. He has been allowing me to come almost every year for the past few years and it is becoming a yearly thing.

    satay

  2. #22
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    Re: Temples of North America

    Quote Originally Posted by satay View Post
    namaste,

    Going to have darshan of varadaraja next week here http://www.hindumandirmn.org/. He has been allowing me to come almost every year for the past few years and it is becoming a yearly thing.


    Vannakkam Satay: I've been to that one. Nice big new building. Have a nice trip.

    Aum Namasivaya

  3. #23
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    Re: Temples of North America

    Vannakkam: Recently I was in Vancouver, and visited 3 temples, all of the South Indian variety, and all on the same day.

    The Murugan temple (There are actually 2 of them, both quite inconspicuous and unadvertised) is quite small and privately owned by a humble devotee from Fiji. It has a reasonably powerful vibration as there is a moolasthanam. Muruga is flanked by Ganesha and Siva, and you can do pradakshina of all 3 at once. e arrived in the middle of a homa ceremony, and it was quite uncrowded, so we sat for an hour or so.

    The next up was a new Ganesha temple which wasn't yet opened but the trustees met us there and received some advice from our priest. It has a large beautiful Ganesha in the middle who more or less really dominates the place. An interesting feature they hope to have is a glass door on the front so passers-by in cars can have a quick darshan as they go by, when the temple is open, and the second set of doors are open. It is on a busy "Little India" style street, with no parking. There was no vibration as there had been no eye-opening. Ganesha is in the form of a Valumpuri Ganesha. In this form He holds a lingam, so there is no need for a Siva in the temple. The murthi was carved in Mahabalipuram ,and we got to go very close, even touch. There will be a smaller shrine for Murugan. I couldn't feel much of a vibration, yet could feel an awesome potential, given the site. It was actually an old Jehovah's Witness Hall that they bought. That made rezoning an non-issue. They're planning to have the kumbabhishekham in January, but details aren't set.

    The third temple was a Srithurka temple started about 15 years back. They own the building, and again its small. The murthis are metal, so there is no abhishekham done. Thurga is flanked by Ganesha and Murugan. The interesting tidbit I learned here is that Thurga is given saris, and she can only wear each one one. So once a year the temple holds a sari sale. A few women knowledgible in saris set the fair prices. My wife wants to go back on that day. The priest here was from the famed Pillaiyarpatti training school in TN.

    So ... when in Vancouver... there are also several other temples, a Shiv Mandir run by North indian Fijians, ISKCON, a VHP run temple, and a couple of Vedic society ones. It seems like there's a Gurdwara on every second block.

    Aum Namasivaya

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    Re: Temples of North America

    Vannakkam: There is a nice article in the newest edition of Hinduism today on north American temples that discusses problems, priests, and more. Several of the temples in this thread are mentioned. http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules...hp?itemid=5311

    Aum Namasivaya

  5. #25
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    Re: Temples of North America

    Vannakkam: In Edmonton we have 2 Fijian temples. Fijian run temples are quite unique, and as far as I know, only exist in Vancouver and Edmonton, outside of Fiji. There may be a couple in Australia. Fiji's total population is only 800 000 and about 40% are the descendants of Indian indentured labour. Because of political turmoil, and previous links from the British Commonwealth days, Canada has strong ties, so when many Indian Fijians have emigrated away, often to Australia, but also here to Canada. We may have as many as 10 000 Indian Fijians here.

    As with all the former British colonies with Indian indentured labour, things developed on their own, uniquely. A couple of common grounds include lack of Brahmins, a mixing with local traditions, and a sense of blue collar working class citizenship. In Fiji , all languages were lost except for Hindi, which became the only Indian language over 6 or 7 generations. In Mauuritius, for example, Marathi, Tamil, Telegu, etc. still exist. Mauritius also has a Hindu majority government, whereas Fiji doesn't. So in Fiji you have people with Gujarati or Tamil ancestry that speak Hindi. The rituals reflect the mix.

    Last night we went to one of the temples, not for the first time, but first time in about 25 years. It had changed a lot. What was once a large corner shrine with a multitude of deities is now a beatiful temple with a multitude of deities in murthies. Vinayaka greets you at the door, there is a Saiva section, a Venkateswara, Krishna, Durga etc.

    Last night was the Fijian version of Thai Pusam, Generally the festivals are shifted to the nearest weekend, although the temple is open for prayers every Tuesday and Friday. Some of the prayers last night were in Tamil, but I figured only the gentleman singing understood them. o it's an eclectic place. Not so formal, more fun it seemed.

    Aum Namasivaya

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