Namaskar,
I had an idea in December that I would find and visit every Temple in my home region, Eastern Massachusetts. Up until a little over a year ago I didn't know there were any Hindu Temples in my State. I was overjoyed when I learned of one, but it was quite a drive away. I also struggled with anxiety and self consciousness that kept me from going. Last Autumn things changed, and I resolved I would go, and find a place to visit regularly. I was still anxious, but posts at this forum and others were very supportive and encouraging, and gave me strength. But the drive to that only one I knew about was just not something that could be managed on any kind of regular basis.
I resolved that there must be other Temples in MA, we have a large community on the North shore and greater Lowell. I couldn't find them right away in web searches, but I would ask friends and search better. And I was right, there are more. There are apparently a lot more! And one is in my home town - not where I live now, but where I grew up and where some of my family still lives. That makes me really happy.
My first real chance to go to a temple around the time I found this out was in Florida in December. I wrote about that, first looking for Temples in that area and then offering my experience of the one I chose to visit. Because of an exchange in that thread and the support I felt when reading others' experiences here, I had the idea to write about each Temple, as a resource for others in Eastern MA, and South NH, and also to give some 'first experience' stories of each place to maybe help encourage others to take the step and go to Temple as well.
I intend to visit every Temple I can find, even if it doesn't focus on my Ishta Devata. If anyone would like to suggest any they know of or have heard of, I would be happy to include them as long as they're not more than an hour and a half drive
Today I went to the largest and most well known Temple in MA, Sri Lakshmi Mandir in Ashland MA for Sri Rudra Abishekham. I will write about it in the next post.
Temples coming up, (not necessarily in this order, list will be updated over time):
Shree Swaminarayan Temple, Lowell
Sri Chinmaya Maruti Temple, Andover
Parvathi Parameshwara Temple, Lowell (hopefully, they might not still be active?)
Sri Siddha Lalitha Peetham, Sree Vijaya Durga Temple, Burlington
Hindu Temple of New Hampshire, Nashua
Those are the closest to me for now. If I'm missing any, let me know.
Visited so far:
Sri Lakshmi Mandir in Ashland MA
New England Shirdi Sai Parivaar Chelmsford
Satsang Center, Woburn
Shirdi Sai Baba Temple, Billerica
Ramakrishna Vedanta Center, Boston
~Pranam-s
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