NYTimes.com Article: Holy Men (and a Cow) Consecrate Hindu Temple

[Guest guest]

This article from NYTimes.com

has been sent to you by geelakshman.

 

Dear Bhagavottamas:

Since some of you could not get to the URL to read the NY Times article on Sri

Ranganatha temple Maha Samprokshanam I am emailing the article(text) only.

adiyen

Lakshmana dAsan

 

 

/-------------------- advertisement -----------------------\

 

 

Let NYTimes.com Come to You

 

Sign up for one of our weekly e-mails

and the news will come directly to you.

YOUR MONEY brings you a wealth of analysis

and information about personal investing.

CIRCUITS plugs you into the latest on

personal technology. TRAVEL DISPATCH offers

you a jump on special travel deals and news.

 

http://email.nytimes.com/email/email.jsp?eta5

 

\-------------------------/

 

Holy Men (and a Cow) Consecrate Hindu Temple

 

 

By SHAILA K. DEWAN

 

 

 

OMONA, N.Y., May 27 — Everyone crowded onto the fresh black asphalt

and stood looking up at the gods. There they were, monkey gods and

winged gods, sleeping gods and praying gods, posed around the

ornate onion- domed towers of the Sri Ranganatha Temple, awaiting

consecration.

 

But how to attain the heavens?

 

Today, the eight priests who had traveled from India for the

opening of the temple in Rockland County, their bare chests and

foreheads painted with a fierce symbol of "the footprint of God,"

ascended in a Genie TMZ-34/19 cherry picker. The helicopter was

delayed by fog.

 

The temple is too new to have been landscaped, so a sea of sticky

mud separated it from the hundreds of devotees, women in bright

saris trimmed with gold, children in embroidered shifts, and men

who simply wore dhotis, long pieces of white cloth fashioned into

loose pants. But they did not hesitate to squish through it,

barefoot, for a chance to be sprayed with saffron-scented holy

water from the priests above.

 

One person opted out of the holy shower: Kimberley Camburn, who

had brought her Holstein cow, Hope, from nearby Stormville early in

the morning, and watched as Hindu women, many of them more at home

in front of a computer than an udder, milked her in the temple.

 

Some celebrants came from the nearby towns of Spring Valley, West

Nyack and White Plains for the camaraderie and pomp of the opening,

which ended today after a week of ceremonies and performances. The

Hindu temple, many in attendance said, is the first in Rockland

County, where Asians have increased by 50 percent since 1990,

according to the 2000 census.

 

Trustees said 10 families took out second mortgages on their homes

to help finance the $2.2 million temple, whose 6,500-square-foot

sanctuary held a sea of people today who sat elbow to elbow on thin

rugs, chanting for hours and reaching out to touch a

camphor-scented flame that was carried about the room.

 

"It's a very auspicious occasion, the beginning of the temple,"

said Bhakti Vijnana Swami, a computer consultant from Jamaica,

Queens, as he made his way past the embers of four ritual fires

that had been set outside the temple. "It's purifying but also

satisfying."

 

The temple also drew guests from places like Texas, Mississippi,

Alabama and Massachusetts, who came because Sri Ranganatha is said

to be the first temple in the country devoted to Sri Vaishnavaism,

a strain of Hinduism that is devoted to the god Vishnu and his many

incarnations and has its roots in southern India.

 

Sri Vaishnavaites maintain that one can reach enlightenment but

still retain a separate identity, albeit one whose purpose is to

serve God. Initiates are lightly branded with the symbol of the

discus and the conch shell, one on each shoulder. The women wrap

their saris in a distinctive fashion, and the men wear dhotis at

religious functions.

 

"I never thought when I came here in 1973 that I would see a

temple this authentic and of this grandeur, following this very

prescribed way," said Nagu Satyan, explaining that it was built

according to the Vedas, or Hindu scriptures. Ms. Satyan, a senior

manager at a defense company who lives in Littleton, Colo., said

she was happy at last to have a place of worship dedicated to the

one god that Sri Vaishnavaites like her believe in, rather than the

multitude of deities to be found in typical temples.

 

"Most temples in the U.S.A. sort of modify to appeal to more

people," she said.

 

For non-Sri Vaishnavaites, attending the temple is something akin

to Lutherans' attending a Methodist church, some of them said. They

said they did not mind, and were just happy to have a place to

worship.

 

"We get a sense of belonging, putting down roots," said Aruna

Bharati, who has lived in the area for almost 23 years and who said

she had been a member of a group that tried to open a temple before

there were enough Indians to sustain one. "If you have no temple in

the community, you feel rootless."

 

The Sri Ranganatha Temple was a long time coming. Fourteen years

ago, a Sri Vaishnavaite teacher in India asked one of his students,

a Pomona physicist named Venkat Kanumalla, to build a temple in

America. Dr. Kanumalla, who is also a Sri Ranganatha priest, began

to raise money by performing what he estimates amounted to 600

religious ceremonies, or pujas, in people's homes all over the

country.

 

This afternoon he emerged after hours in the temple's inner

sanctum, where he had been attending to a granite Vishnu reclining

on a coiled, five-headed cobra, sheltered by its hoods. He looked

as drained and blissful as a victorious athlete. His "footprint of

God" had faded from sweat, his foot was smudged with yellow powder,

and he carried a wilting garland under one arm.

 

Eight years ago, he said, he bought acres in Ladentown, a hamlet

Ladentown that straddles Pomona and Ramapo. But then, he said, he

had to work to quell fears among local Indian-Americans that the

temple would exclude those who were not Sri Vaishnavaites. And a

neighborhood group sued to prevent construction.

 

Finally, in 1997, a construction permit was granted. And today the

conflicts over the temple's construction seemed well in the past.

"I've been in this country a long time," said Ms. Bharati, the

temple trustee, with no particular rancor. "If people don't know

what it is, they're afraid of it. They didn't know what to expect.

If it was just a church, I don't think we would have that problem,

because people know what a church is."

 

But Ian Banks, who lives next door to the temple and is a Pomona

trustee and past president of the Ladentown Preservation League,

said the concerns had more to do with the size of the temple, which

he said had been larger in the original plans, and its effect on

traffic, noise and the neighborhood's rural character. "They try to

turn it into some kind of anti- religious thing, but it's not," he

said.

 

From Mr. Banks's shady backyard, where he spent the day replacing

the shingles on his old clapboard farmhouse, the temple presented a

striking contrast to the red barn and humble woodshed. Where horses

once grazed, fuchsia banners fluttered, anchored to golden balls

that crowned elaborate turrets.

 

And then, as Mr. Banks looked on, a stiff wind bent the trees in

his yard and caused the women on the temple driveway to clutch at

their saris. The helicopter, five hours late, arrived and opened a

hatch, depositing a heavy rain of multicolored flowers onto the

expectant crowd.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/28/nyregion/28TEMP.html?ex=992148189&ei=1&en=3238\

180304018618

 

/--------------------------------\

 

 

Visit NYTimes.com for complete access to the

most authoritative news coverage on the Web,

updated throughout the day.

 

Become a member today! It's free!

 

http://www.nytimes.com?eta

 

 

\--------------------------------/

 

HOW TO ADVERTISE

 

For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters

or other creative advertising opportunities with The

New York Times on the Web, please contact Alyson

Racer at alyson or visit our online media

kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo

 

For general information about NYTimes.com, write to

help.

 

Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company

[Guest guest]

> Holy Men (and a Cow) Consecrate Hindu Temple

> >

> By SHAILA K. DEWAN

>

> OMONA, N.Y., May 27 — Everyone crowded onto the fresh black asphalt

> and stood looking up at the gods. There they were, monkey gods and

> winged gods, sleeping gods and praying gods, posed around the

> ornate onion- domed towers of the Sri Ranganatha Temple, awaiting

============

> consecration.

 

Wouldnt it have been more appropriate for the reporter to check

the contents with the temple authorities before getting this on print?