The Hindu Temple of New Hampshire is happy to announce the commencement of services from its new premises at 523-525, Broad Street, Nashua, New Hampshire. The Temple warmly welcomes you to visit its new premises, participate in its services, and receive the blessing of happiness.

With the grace of the Almighty and the blessings of the Jagadgurus, a grand and well-attended inaugural function and pooja were celebrated  on March 24^th, 2013 to mark the inauguration of the Temple’s new premises.  The pooja was lead and conducted by Sivacharya Sri Bhairavji, who is well known and respected within the Hindu community in the Greater Boston area. Sri Bhairavji who served as a senior priest at the Sri Lakshmi Temple in Ashland, MA, was involved with the pranapratishta (spiritual vitalization of a deity) of Sri Ayyappa, the Navagrahas, Sri Subrahmanya and the Rajagopura Kumbhabhishekam (sanctification of the sacred entrance tower) at the AshlandTemple.

Sanctification
The inaugural function started early Sunday morning at the previous location of the Temple at 1 Progress Avenue, Nashua, NH, where Sri Bhairavji performed poojas marking the formal departure of the deities from there. The vigrahas (sculptural embodiments of the deities) were then transported by Temple volunteers to the new premises with bhakti (love and devotion), where Sri Bhairavji performed poojas to receive and welcome the deities into the new premises. This was followed by various rituals for the traditional spiritual cleansing, sanctification and blessing of the premises (punyahavachanam), and to endow the premises with the spiritual character, vibrations, and associations that are appropriate for a Hindu Temple whose goal is to serve for the well-being of all. Sri Bhairavji preceded the rituals with a brief discourse on their purpose and pointed out an unplanned and therefore, what he suggested might be, a providential occurrence at the function, namely the lighting of seven wicks rather than a single wick of the grand ornamental lamp. The significance of the number seven in this context is that it corresponds to the number of deities in which the Almighty is enshrined in the Temple. The number seven is also considered sacred in other ways within the larger Hindu cultural context as is evident from the well-known Hindu themes of sapta rishi (the seven great sages), sapta swara (the seven notes in the Indian musical scale), sapta padi (the seven steps that the bride and groom walk around the sacred fire to solemnize a marriage), etc. As Sri Bhairavji conducted the poojas, including homa (worship rituals honoring the sacred fire) and abhisheka (ritual ablution of deities), that provided the mind with a visual anchor for concentrating on the Almighty, the volunteer Ritwiks filled the environment with the divine vibrations of sacred Vedic chants and Bhajans, that provided an auditory anchor to keep the mind focused.

Devotion
The celebration included various other events. Children trained by the volunteer teachers of the Temple’s Bala Gokulam program (cultural school for children) beautifully rendered various shlokas (sacred hymns) in peaceful unison. A talented young singer enthralled the devotees with “ Bho Shambo”, a song in praise of Lord Shiva composed by Poojya Swami Sri Dayananda Saraswathi , and set to Raag Revati.  A chorus of ladies who sang the “Sri Guruvatha Pureesa Pancharathna Stotram” filled the air with melodious chants of “Narayana Narayana”.  The highlight of the evening was a program of chanting of “Divya Prabhandham” including Periyaazhvaar Thirumozhi and Thiruppavai (which forms a major part of the daily service in Vaishnavite temples) by Sri Kannabiran and his team. This was followed by chanting of “Sri Vishnu Sahasranama”, a sacred hymn that sings the praise Lord Vishnu using a thousand names.

Volunteerism
The selfless service of the volunteers that went into making all of this possible is commendable. Volunteers toiled over the last several weeks, many of them putting in as many as 20 hours a week, to get the Temple ready for this event. The work involved a lot of unglamorous hard labor such as scrubbing floors and stripping walls. These are clearly not the kind of tasks that the hands of technology and business professionals and their spouses (the typical Temple volunteer) are used to, but are definitely in the spirit of charya or altruistic service prescribed in the “Thirumantiram” (Sacred Hymn) composed by the Tamil sage Thirumoolar (Tantiram 5, Dasa Marga.1):

Lighting the lamps, picking the flowers,                    à®Žà®³à®¿à®¯ நல் தீபம் இடல் மலர் கொய்தல்
Lovingly cleaning the floors, singing His praise,         அளிது இன் மொழுகல் அது தூர்த்தல் வாழ்த்தல்     
Ringing the bell, and fetching ceremonial water     à®¤à®³à®¿ மணி பற்றல் பல் மஞ்சனம் ஆதி                               
These simple duties constitute the Dasa Marga      à®…ளி தொழில் செய்வது தான் தாச மார்க்கமே

Conservation
The new Temple campus consists of two buildings. The main building houses the shrines for the various deities. The wooden construction of the main building with sloped roofs that is typical of New England buildings, reminds one however  of temples in Kerala. The second building, which previously hosted a professional office, has been transformed to accommodate the Bala Gokulam classes. This spacious building has class rooms with apt names such as Dhruva, Prahlada, Shankara-Sharada, a room for Ritwiks, a small library and an office room.

The Hindu Temple of New Hampshire is unique in that it is probably one of the few temples that can lay claim to a green label. It uses an unusual source of energy that is sustainable and environmentally -friendly, viz., geothermal energy, for heating the main building. Geothermal energy is reliable and cost-effective and keeps the premises warm and comfortable during winter.

Invitation
The Temple which is located off Exit 6 on Route 3 is easily accessible from most locations in the Greater Boston area. In addition to daily poojas (nitya aradhana), arati and darshan, the Temple conducts special poojas on frequently recurring occasions such as Pradosham, Chaturthi and Amavasya, and celebrates all major Hindu festivals.  Delicious prasad, made by a team of volunteer culinary experts, is distributed on major occasions. The HTNH welcomes you to visit and worship at the Temple, and participate and volunteer in the Temple activities.

The Temple seeks your patronage and support to help it grow and serve you well.  Your donations are tax-deductible and may be made out to HTNH, PO Box 7041, Nashua, NH 03060. You can also sponsor special occasions at the Temple, or sponsor a Chant for Dharma event (where you receive the blessings of an hour-long exposure to the divine vibrations of Mantras right in your home) to mark occasions of significance to your family. Please call the Hindu Temple of New Hampshire at 1-603-598-HTNH or visit http://www.hindutemplenh.org for further information.

किंबहुना सर्वसुखीं | पूर्ण होऊनि तिहीं लोकीं |
kim bahuna sarva sukheen | poorna houni tiheen lokeen |
May all beings in all the worlds be blessed with happiness
(Line from Pasayadan, composed by Marathi Saint Sri Jnaneshwar Maharaj)

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