Sri Garuda and Nandi from the Vishnu-Shiva temple in Riverdale, GA.
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Daily darshan
- Thread starter Nyingjé Tso
- Start date
Have you been to this one Starry? It's on my to do list.
Aupmanyav
Be your own guru
@StarryNightshade , a temple in a mall? Is not it somewhat unusual?
Sure have.
I went this past weekend. It's actually a bit smaller than I thought it would be, but still very magnificent nonetheless.My partner was the one who took the pics.
I suppose it is.
The mall itself was catered to the South Asian community, so I guess a few small temples comes with the territory.
Fireside_Hindu
Jai Lakshmi Maa
There is a small temple in a small shared commercial space in a town nearby. The building houses several businesses, and the temple has it's facility there. I imagine the rent is more affordable for smaller communities, than trying to build a stand alone temple.
Here in the west, the mall temple, or rented space is often seen as a stepping stone, with the goal of an independent stand alone temple still in mind. Most feel it is important to establish worship first, and then the blessings of the Gods will help with the manifestation of the temple.
I like the idea. Better than illegally occupying a piece of road-side land as we do in India.
View attachment 14078
Are these attended to by pujaris, or do devotees simply go there to make offerings and their own pujas? Personally I like the idea of tiny roadside shrines, or "hole-in-the-wall" shrines on a city street where you can go and pray, and leave offerings.
Aupmanyav
Be your own guru
These are regularly attended by priests, morning and evening. Some people may consider them more important than regular temples if they think that the deities there were helpful to them for something in their life. For the priest, it may become like a place to be contacted. People may contact him for rituals at their places - side business. In addition, the priests is very likely to be employed in some government job or private business nearby. Being a priest does not guarantee good money. One cannot blame them.
Actually I like the idea. I like the idea of the priests being more accessible and being able to make a better livelihood. Our priests are given small quarters on the temple grounds, probably no more than 2 or 3 rooms in what looks like a boarding house structure (although a nice, new clean building). They probably don't receive much of a stipend, not much more than enough to afford clothing and food for their families.
In my limited experience in South India it is both. In some places they are so plentiful that no individual priest could make it to them all. They often did have a local 'caretaker pandaram'. These shrines existed in Mauritius too, except that some had Mary or Jesus in them, and you often couldn't tell until you got to look inside.
Did you go to both? Was there much of a difference, or could you notice? (I believe Atlanta is one of the few places where they built two separate temples for Vaishnava and Shaiva, and didn't put it all under one roof. I could be wrong.)Sure have.
My partner was the one who took the pics.
We did. I suppose the major difference was that the Vaishnava temple was more "crowded"? More people and seemingly more murthis.
Aupmanyav
Be your own guru
Shiva bhaktars generally like quite places. Can you believe it that I went to Badrinath and Puri and did not go inside the temples? Madhya Maheshwar and Tungnath in Uttarkhand were divine. Lonely, high up in the mountains, 11,500 ft. and 12,000 ft. No, I have no grudge with Lord Vishnu, Lord Rama being so close to me. It is only the crowds that deterred me. Why go into the crowd and why not ask the deity to pay a personal visit to one's heart?
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Nyingjé Tso
Dharma not drama
Vanakkam,
Thanks everyone for those gorgeous darshans ! I think my computer is going to explode with all those pics am feeding it. Woops.
Aum Namah Shivaya
Thanks everyone for those gorgeous darshans ! I think my computer is going to explode with all those pics am feeding it. Woops.
Aum Namah Shivaya
Aupmanyav
Be your own guru
Who is the Mother Goddess on the right-side of the photograph. I will try to find out. I was expecting Lord Ganesha in the niche as the other one has Kartikeya/Murugan. Ganesha will be on the right or left side. Every thing in the room is covered with gold-leaf curtesy one bhakta, some 3.7 million USD.
