Hindu temple holds festival

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Hindu temple holds festival for additions

Local Indian community organizes four-day celebration for

sanctification rites in Fremont

By Jonathan Jones, STAFF WRITER

 

FREMONT — On Saturday morning, behind the Hindu Temple and Cultural

Center, a group of Hindu Brahmins perform sacred purifying rituals by

lighting a sacrificial fire and placing objects such as fruit, honey

and wood into it to ward off evil spirits.

 

It is all part of a weekend ceremony to sanctify the new additions to

the Hindu Temple, also known as the Vedic Dharma Samaj, on Delaware

Drive off Blacow Road.

 

Over four days, hundreds of Hindus, first- and second-generation

Indo-Americans, gathered together to offer a series of poojas, or

prayers, and bring blessings including "Kumbaabhishekam," a sacred

ritual where deities are bathed with holy water.

 

After purchasing the land from Seventh-day Adventists 26 years ago,

temple leaders say they have worked hard to turn the church into a

temple that fits and reflects the divine as conceived by Hindus in

northern and southern India, said Arun Thakar, temple manager.

 

"The people here are from all over India, and this temple is a

representation of all Hindu beliefs in various saints and gods,"

Thakar said. "Earlier, it was mainly people from the northern part of

India, and now

 

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we have many more people from the southern part."

 

The temple now features a covered walkway extension connecting the

temple to a newly expanded dining hall.

 

But the most prominent feature of the $600,000 project, on which

construction began in August 2004, is a tower over the entrance.

 

Known as a gopuram, the tower is considered a prominent feature of

Hindu temple architecture of southern India.

 

Gokal Gupta, temple president, said the temple has grown significantly

with the influx of immigrants from India and now has upward of 600

visitors during peak festival celebrations.

 

Late Saturday evening, the temple planned to install a series of new

holy images to aid people in prayer and meditation, officials said.

Funds were solicited through the sponsoring of bricks, images and

water held in holy "Kalashas" silver containers by temple worshippers.

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