Places of Worship

We could never imagine that the immigrants from India, settled here for years, would build some magnificent temples, that too, in an area like Troy where the Indian population is not much. The fact is that Kumaresh could take us to at least four temples. He says, there are some more but their exact location is not known to him. The following describes about the temples we visited during our holiday in USA.

1. The Bharatheeya Temple.

This is the nearest temple to us. It is just about 15 minutes drive. We attended a Satyanarayana pooja function at this temple on 12th, within a week of our arrival here. The weather was cold (almost zero celsius). We had to pass through a long corridor, shivering all the way, in spite of wearing our jackets. The main deities at this temple are Vishnu and Lakshmi. They were of full size. There were idols of Ganesh, Hanuman, Saraswathi and Satyanarayana also. The priest, clad in upper garments also, was doing the archana and some devoteees were participating. The audience was sitting in rapt attention throughout the pooja. Instructions, naturally, were in English, since the audience spoke different languages. In the end, there was a maha-arathi in which all could participate. The temperature inside had been kept at a comfortable level. As I had mentioned earlier, we passed through two sets of doors before entering the hall. Provision had been made to keep our footwear and jackets outside the hall. As we were entering the car, at 9 p.m., Kumaresh pointed to us the snow that was falling around. On another occasion, we all attended a function specific to Ayyappa and Hanuman, on their birthday at the same venue.
Photgrahy was denied and hence, I can't provide one.

2. The Parasakthi Temple.

This temple is located in a neighbouring township called Pontiac. Here too, the temple looked beautiful and was patronised by South Indians mainly. The main deity is Parasakthi or the Divine Mother as they say. But there were many upa-devathas (accompanying deities). Thus there were sub-temples for Shiva, Ganesha, Muruga, Venkatachalapathy, Jagannadh, Sreeram-Seetha, and (believe it or not) Guruvayoorappan and Ayyappan. There was a place assigned for the navagrahas also. Recently, a big function was held to install temples for Guruvayoorappan, Chottanikkara Bhagavathy and Kodungalloor Bhagavathy. On that day, at the end of the rituals, we were given prasadam consisting of different types of mixed rice and sweet. About 300 persons must have participated for that function. Here too, No photography was allowed. However, I managed to click a snap of Ayyappa sitting majestically at the to of eighteen steps.

3. Shirdi Sai Baba mandir.

This temple is located at about 30 minutes drive away form Kumaresh's colony, at Livonia. It is a large hall. with a basement. It was Sree Rama Navami (April 3) and the Seetha Kalyanam function was in progress. There was a good audience, mainly of South Indians. At the end of the function, all were given prasadam in the form of mixed rice, like puliyodarai, limboo rice, curd rice, sweet rice and sambar rice. They were packed in carry boxes of thermocole-like material. In addition, we were given panagam also in disposable tumblers. It was very nice to see such a good and active participation in the religious activities at the far-off land. The deity of Sree Sai Baba was represented by a picture only. There was no idol, but on that day, there was an announcement that a Mumbaite had offered the vigraha of Sai Baba for that temple.

4. Sree Balaji Temple

This temple is situated in Sterling Heights, about half-hour drive from Troy. This is also known as Sri Blaji Vedic Centre. It is located in the ground floor of a building, in what looks lik a big room. Balaji and his consorts ar placed in the centre of the room, by the wall, richly decorated. The devotees stand or sit at the same level as the deities. I mean to say that the conventional sanctum sanctorum is absent. There are pictures of Garuda and hanuman opposite to the deities. In one side, Lord Satyanarayana is kept in the form of a picture. A tape recorder sings the hymns of M S Subbalakshmi. A priest gets up to show the aarati to the deities. H gives us theertham and some prasadam in the form of fruit or dryfruit. There is a notice asking the devotees not o bring cooked food as offering. This could be to avoid any spillage which could damage the costly, well laden carpet. Although there were not many devotees when we went there, I could see that the temple is patronised well from the list of names offering different varieties of offerings for the religious functions.
5.. The Kasi Temple
This temple is situated in an area known as Flint. The deities here are Kasi viswanatha and Visalakshi. The temple had a pair of whie gopurams in Tamil Nadu style, hite painted, but without much decorations. There are beautiful idols of the deities. They had kept the sanctity of the temple very well. One interesting notice at the entrance said that entry for devotees wearing jeans is prohibited. Adjacent to the temple, there is a separate temple for Hanuman. The idol is big (life size) and well ornamented. Madhuram was so overwhelmed that she sat down there to chant the Hanuman Chalisa. There was a huge tree in the lawns around the temple, with its leaves resembling those of a banyan tree. However, there were no hanging roots characteristic of a banyan tree..

















6. The ISKCON Temple
This temple, dedicated to Sree Krishna, is located in the city of Detroit. There are idols of Krishna-Radha and Krishna in various incarnations. On the day we visited the temple, we could see the idols of Jagannadh, Balarama and Subhadra, in the same style as in Puri, kept in the Hall, where a big line of devotees were standing in disciplined line, hoping to get a chance to do the abhisheka. A group of volunteers were handing over conchful of various materials, like honey, milk, curd, sandalpaste water, coconut-water etc to the devotrrs in the line. Each proceeded to do the abhisheka to the three dietees and returned the conches to the volunterrs. In the background, bhajan was in full swing. We all had the chance to do the abhisheka too. Here, no one objected to our taking some snaps. I could take about ten snaps which included the various deities, our performing abhisheka, and the landscape around. You can see some of them here.
On June 20, 2009, I had the opportunity to witness the radhayathra in the same style as in Puri. The Chariot was a replica of the original. All the three idols, Balaram, Subhadra and Jagannath were seated in the same chariot, unlike in Puri, where they have their individual chariots. There were hudreds of participants. The chariot moved to the accompaniment of bhajan singing, dancing and percussion instruments. Devotees took turns to pull the chariot with the ropes. The rpocession was followed by a sumptuous lunch for the participants. The items included pooris, plain rice, curries, sweet and juice.
7. Swaminarayan Temple

This temple is located in Canton, about 45 minutes drive from Troy. The temple is built in the middle of green lawns and looked beautiful. The doors and ceilings had carvings in wood. Inside, the idols of Swami narayan, Atheethanandswami and some Hindu deities are installed. We did not find any devotees at that time of our visit, which was 3.00 p.m. on a Saturday.