Worshippers also pray and perform daily rituals at home. They don't have a weekly temple worship service but instead attend for festivals that are scattered throughout the year - about 30 total. Hindus also believe in reincarnation and in karma - essentially, that what goes around comes around and that how you act determines your destiny. The various Hindu deities - scripture says there are 330 million of them - are all different forms of this one supreme being.ĭifferent forms are popular in different parts of India, Todi said. What we believe: Hindus believe in one God, who is present in all things (including people). "They can recite for hours and hours," Todi said. Worshippers bow to pray outside the shrines, but only priests can enter them.īharatiya's four full-time priests all trained in India starting in their childhoods for the intellectual, philosophical and physical rigors of reading, interpreting and chanting Sanskrit. Inside the temple, freestanding shrines display icons of a dozen Hindu and Jain deities, including Lord Ganesha. Worshippers place their shoes on a large rack in the first-floor lobby before walking upstairs to the second-floor temple space. Where we worship: The building is at 1612 County Line Road in Montgomeryville. It attracts 1,000 to 1,500 worshippers for celebrations of Hindu festivals. Who we are: Bharatiya Temple, founded in the late 1990s, has 600 member families. "Our concept from the beginning was to unite the whole community," said temple president Nand Todi.
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Its tent is so broad that members of the Jain religion, which is similar to Hinduism but has its own practices, also worship at Bharatiya.
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![bharatiya temple ganesh festival bharatiya temple ganesh festival](https://www.karnataka.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/ganesha-idols-yediyur-bangalore-201309.jpg)
(Most temples serve Hindus with roots in one particular region.) As a "multi-deity" temple, the modern, 8,500-square-foot building houses shrines to a number of gods that are revered in different regions of India. The temple itself is a big tent, too - metaphorically speaking - for followers of the Hindu religion. LAST WEEKEND, big outdoor party tents brimming with Indian food, Indian music and dancing filled the parking lots and grounds at Bharatiya Temple on County Line Road near Willow Grove.įamilies from across the region converged on the Hindu temple for the annual Philadelphia Ganesh Festival, honoring the popular elephant-headed deity Ganesha, who is said to remove life's obstacles.