Author: Karen Vance
Publication: The Enquirer
Date: May 22, 2004
URL: http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/05/22/loc_faith22.html
Faith Matters
Next weekend, the Cincinnati Hindu
Temple will host a weekend of celebrations marking the completion of the
congregation's building.
The more than 2,000 people in Cincinnati
who observe Hinduism - what is generally considered the world's oldest
major religion with 1.05 billion followers - will celebrate from May 28
to 31 with three ceremonies.
"All three will complete the vision
of our founding members in the community. It is coming to a very successful
and happy conclusion," said J.K. Bhattacharjee, one of the founding members
of the temple.
The Hindu Society of Greater Cincinnati
was founded more than 15 years ago and opened the temple seven years ago
at 4920 Klatte Road, Union Township, Clermont County.
First, they will observe the Maha
Kalash Sthapana, which is the installation of one large pitcher or urn
- about 2,500 pounds - at the top of the temple and eight smaller ones.
The installation is sacred in Hinduism and similar in significance to putting
a cross on the steeple of a Christian church or placing the Torah scrolls
in a Jewish synagogue's ark.
"This makes the temple sanctified,"
said Vijay Sharma, president of the society.
The devotees will also observe Maha
Havan, a ritual offering to the fire god to purify and destroy all evils
in people's lives.
The temple will also open two additional
wings and install four additional deities. In Hinduism, people from different
regions of India worship and pray to different deities with the same goal
- self- realization.
"We all have the same destination,
but in India, each of us have different highways," Bhattacharjee said.
The Temple will add Shri Chitraguptaji,
Shri Jagannathiji and Shri Nav Grahaji to the 12 deities already at the
temple.
"I don't think you will find so
many deities anywhere in the world in one chapel," Sharma said.
Bhattacharjee said the installation
of the new deities and the existing 12 is a testament to the Temple's emphasis
on inclusion of all religions - those with Indian origins and others.
"People of any background, any religion,
any age, any culture, can go to this beautiful place, sit and meditate
and pray and have help from the priests if they need it," he said.
And while India itself tends to
be a religiously tolerant nation - recent democratic elections brought
to power a party led by a Roman Catholic-born woman, a Sikh prime minister
and a Muslim president in the country with a more than 80 percent Hindu
population - Hindus do not usually worship together.
"In India we could not accomplish
this (the diversity of deities in one temple) because we believe so strongly
in the individual deities in various regions. But we have broken down those
barriers," Bhattacharjee said. "From day one, we wanted our temple to represent
all of India."
The temple, which has four resident
priests, is host to regular services Sundays 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., hosts smaller
groups during the week and is open daily for individual prayer and mediation.
For more information about Cincinnati Hindu Temple or the weekend's festivities,
call the temple at 528-3714.
