Temples Everywhere We Go
In every country,
mandirs serve as critical centers for religious and cultural expression
ARELIGION’S PLACES OF WORSHIP REVEAL its stage of
development in a region. Today, Hindu temples in Continental Europe are like
those in North America 30 years ago, when North America had only a few dozen
temples—the majority located in warehouses, rented rooms, former churches and
homes. Most European temples today, we learned in our travels, are still
situated in flats, cellars and industrial halls. But a growing number of
towering, traditional edifices herald the establishment of Sanatana Dharma as a
major force on the Continent.
Lisbon,
Portugal, is home to three of Europe’s purpose-built temples. A
7,000-square-meter parcel of land on Alameda Mahatma Gandhi was gifted to the
city’s Gujarati community by the government in the mid 1980s, according to
Kirit Kumar Bachu. Here they built the Templo Hindu Radha Krishna, a massive
structure inaugurated in 1998, containing an elaborate, marble-clad worship
hall, an auditorium that can hold 600 and a community hall for festivals,
weddings and other events.
The
new Templo de Shiva is coming up in Lisbon’s suburb of Santo António dos
Cavaleiros. A large cultural hall, built first, was recently finished and
already serves as a gathering place for the local community. Plans are set for
a traditional North Indian style mandir on the 16,000-square-meter hilltop
property—another gift from the government.
Elsewhere
in Lisbon, ground was broken in 2011 for a BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir which
is now in full operation. This prominent Vaishnava organization also has a
temple in Antwerp, Belgium.
Purohit
Krishna Kripa Dasa of Spain tells us there are about 20 temples in his country.
“Most are in existing buildings; only two or three were specially constructed
as temples. In the future we would like to apply to the government for a plot
of land. But Hindus are scattered around the country, so choosing a central
place is difficult.”
Portugal
& Italy
n
Italy the Sanatana Dharma style mandir is common. In the northern regions of
Veneto, Lombardy and Liguria and the southern island of Sicily, all but one of
the five temples we visited originated as a simple hall, repurposed to honor a
pantheon of Deities. In Arzignano, an hour west of Venice, the 12-year-old
Sanatan Dharm Mandir is located on the rented second floor of a nondescript
bodybuilding gymnasium in an industrial area. The Shree Durgiana Mandir,
nestled between farm fields in bucolic Castelverde, and the tiny Doorga Maa
Mandir, tucked in the ancient Sicilian city of Catania, manage in similar
situations. Kumar Pradeep, president of the Arzignano temple, shared, “During
festivals, we always invite the mayor, the police and the Catholic priest. They
always have good things to say. We really feel that we are part of the
community.”
The
Shri Hari Om Mandir in Pegognaga, Italy, tells another story. Of the many
shrines serving the Punjabi and Bangladeshi communities that dot the northern
Italian landscape, only this, to our knowledge, is currently being built from
the ground up. So far four years in construction, it is already being used for
pujas and festivals, the fully furnished kitchen turning out puri
bhaji meals
for hundreds each weekend. But they are struggling to raise the remaining
€500,000 (us$687,000) needed to finish. Ravinder Handa, the temple’s treasurer,
revealed, “We have started a direct debit system with the bank. Members are
signing up to make regular donations. Each month, an amount they specify—€20,
€30, €50 ($25, $40, $70)—is automatically transferred from their accounts into
the temple’s account.” This mandir promises to become an oasis of Hinduism in
an otherwise bleak terrain of factories, warehouses, vineyards and near-empty
churches.
In
Switzerland, Dr. Satish Joshi told us the Sri Lankan Tamils used to meet at the
Hare Krishna temple in Zurich. “Now they have 22 temples of their own.” The
newest is the Sri Manonmani Ampal Alayam, a grand, Southern-style temple in
Trimbach. Arriving on the last day of a festival, we were treated to a full
round of aratis at the temple’s powerful shrines. Costing $3.3 million, the
temple had just been inaugurated in March, 2013, after four years of
construction and almost three years of Indian decoration. Backed by evergreen
forest with an intercity rail line winding by, it is a charming picture of
sylvan Switzerland. Mr. V. Ramalingam, the manager, shared, “Now people from
all over Germany and Switzerland are coming.”
In
bustling Berlin, the borough of Neukölln boasts two temples. The Sri Ganesha
Tempel is located in the auspicious northeast corner of the 50-hectare
Volkspark Hasenheide. Its start in 2006 is a tale of Ganesha’s grace. Mr.
Krishnamurthy related, “I was a member of the borough council at the time. The
mayor once asked why I had missed a meeting. I explained we all go to the Hamm
temple for the big celebrations, and he asked why we couldn’t build a temple in
Berlin. I said, ‘If you give us land, we will build it as soon as possible’—and
he replied, ‘Then I will give you a place.’ He quickly proposed five options.
This one was in the park, and the house number was 108.”
Not
far away, the Sri Mayurapathy Murugan Tempel operated for 22 years out of a
humble cellar on Urbanstrasse before a new building was erected in the nearby
neighborhood of Britz. The committee took us to see the new temple, where the
plaster work was nearly finished and the painting was just beginning (see its
brilliantly painted vimanam on our gatefold). This temple’s kumbhabhishekam
was held September 7, just two months after our visit.
The
Sri Lankan Tamil community has at least two dozen more temples in Germany, most
spread across North Rhine-Westphalia, the country’s most populous state. Of
these, Hamm’s Sithivinayagar Tempel is a modest place sandwiched between office
buildings near the train station. In 1994 it was gifted its murti and initial
donation by HINDUISM TODAY founder Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami.
Just
off the autobahn in Hamm’s industrial Uentrop district, a white gopuram
competes with the cooling towers of a defunct nuclear reactor. Signs direct
cars toward the parking for the Sri Kamadchi Ampal Tempel, the most famous
temple in the northern part of the Continent. Over 25,000 pilgrims from all
over Europe descend on this magical little citadel for its annual festival in
May/June. Sri Paskara Gurukkal, the unassuming yet charismatic priest, came to
Germany in 1985 and started the temple four years later. He insists all credit
for its success is owed to the Goddess, not to himself.
The
three-story Hari Om Mandir is a stone’s throw from the Rhine in the Mülheim
district of Cologne. The newest of seven Afghan Hindu temples in Germany, it
was still just a concrete shell when we visited. The topmost story will be the
temple hall. Below that will be a full-size auditorium; the ground floor will
be classrooms. Representatives told us, “When it is finished, we will have
music, Bharatanatyam, German, Hindi and religion classes.”
Germany
& Switzerland
The
Balinese community have built their own temples in this region. Luh Gede Juli
Wirahmini Bisterfeld works for the Museum of Ethnology in Hamburg. “First the
museum asked me to build a Balinese house,” she began. “When we celebrated the
opening with our traditional dancing and music, the head of the museum was
really happy. He asked what they could do for our community, and we said, ‘Why
not build a temple?’ Such a question only ever comes once!” After a year of
permitting and planning, permission was given to build the temple in the garden
right in front of the museum. Now priests brought from Bali perform the
customary purification ceremonies on the lunar cycle and the festivals, such as
Saraswati and Pagerwesi, that are so central to Balinese Hindu culture.
Made
Sukasta told us the biggest Balinese temple outside the home country is in a
55-acre jungle theme park called Paira Daiza in Brugelette, near Brussels. Like
the Iraivan Temple that was carved in Bengaluru and shipped to Kauai, this
structure was carved in Bali and shipped to Belgium. Inaugurated in 2009, the
traditional stone and wood Pura Agung Santi Bhuwana looks right at home
surrounded by a landscape of tropical plants brought in from Bali.
The
Shree Raam Mandir in Wijchen, in the remote eastern part of the Netherlands, is
one of many temples serving that country’s large Surinamese Hindu community. A
representative explained, “We have three services every day, and we sing bhajan
kirtans each evening after the pandit teaches from the Ramayan or Bhagavad Gita.”
On Tuesdays the Hanuman Chalisa is sung 11 times in place of the usual
discourse and bhajans.
In
the town of Den Helder on the North Holland peninsula, the Sri Lankan refugee
community has built Holland’s first Ganesha temple. Begun in 1991, it was
re-opened in September 2013 with the dedication of its new 18-meter gopuram.
Clive Roberts, who lives in nearby Kolhorn, observed, “I have seen many
temples, but to approach this one in Holland—not India or Sri Lanka—is very
touching. You could stand and study the detail of all the figures for ages, and
never encompass the whole. The colors are striking and beautifully bright; it
almost overwhelms the senses.” In 2000, when the temple was just a room loaned
by the local civic council, Clive and his wife Puvaneswary met with Chandran,
one of the temple committee members. “He showed us the plans for the temple. It
seemed impossibly ambitious, but they had faith that it would manifest.”
France
has only a handful of temples; we visited two of these in Paris. Just outside
the city in the quiet suburb of Gretz-Armainvilliers is the Centre Védantique,
an old country mansion turned teaching facility for the Ramakrishna Mission (see here). It also
serves as a temple for the local Hindu community, particularly during major
festivals, such as Mahasivaratri.
The
18th arrondissement of Paris, just
north of two of the city’s six major train stations, is home to the Sri Manika
Vinayakar Alayam, known locally and by the sign above its unassuming entry as
“Temple Ganesh.” Though it had to move twice since its beginning in 1958, this
unexpectedly small fixture of the Parisian Hindu community hasn’t lost steam.
For the past 18 years it has conducted a massive Ganesha festival such as is
seldom seen outside India and Sri Lanka. Replete with kavadi bearers, temple
drummers, dancers and mountains of broken coconuts, the elaborate chariot
parade wends through the Paris streets every September on Ganesha Chaturthi.
This
temple was founded by V. Sanderasekaram, who passed away in April 2013. Mr.
Jeyaratnam, the manager, described the need: “He found that most of the people
who had left Sri Lanka because of the problems there were displaced and didn’t
have somewhere to gather. Here they could come in for meditation, and they
could be advised as to how they should conduct themselves in this foreign
country.”
For most Hindus, temples offer a palpable
connection to the Divine. They are the abode of God, the arena for festivals
and rites of passage, the chalice of culture and nexus of worship. Therefore,
we build temples wherever we live—temples of all sizes and shapes, temples of
modern as well as traditional architectural style, temples for Vinayaga, Durga,
Murugan, Vishnu, Siva, Rama and more, with joyous festivals and colorful
parades for all—attracting many from the local European community back to their
ancient roots. Historians tell us the mystical tribes of early Europe had much
in common with Hinduism, and the Celts, Hellenes and Druids worshiped
Lingam-shaped stones. Though their own temples now lie in ruins, the ancients
would feel quite at home in the Hindu temples coming up on the same lands where
they once worshiped.
Three European Monasteries
In Italy, Switzerland and France, three ascetic orders
hold firmly to their holy heritage
MONASTERIES
HAVE HISTORICALLY preserved Hindu dharma through their steadfast discipline and
institutional longevity. Ashrams come and go, but monasteries persevere; so it
is heartening to find strong, traditional monasteries far from India.
Italy’s
Gitananda Ashram lies twelve kilometers inland from Savona on the Mediterranean
Sea. It is a remote retreat, a surprising location for such a major Hindu
center. Founded in 1984 by Sri Svami Yogananda Giri and named after his
spiritual master, the renowned Dr. Svami Gitananda Giri of Ananda Ashram in
South India [1907–1993], the monastery is profoundly grounded in spiritual
sadhana, temple worship, sannyas and service to the guru, whose prowess might
be overlooked given his unpretentious and placid nature, until you encounter
his creation.
The
center lies on 20 acres, surrounded by dense forests of chestnut trees and
accessible only by a one-way, unpaved path that winds five kilometers to the
nearest road. This is not an easy place to reach, but it is well worth the
effort.
A
cluster of two-story buildings provide accommodation for the sannyasins and for
retreatants who come for seminars on yoga and Hinduism. The grounds are a lavish
display of colorfully painted shrines and murtis—Ganesha, Murugan, Siva and His
other half, the merciful Mother Goddess—singing a song of South Indian art and
architecture.
Some
years ago this Italian monastery brought a team of sthapatis and silpis from
Tamil Nadu to build an Agamic, Chola-style temple for the Divine Mother, Sri
Lalita Tripurasundari, the main Deity worshiped in the Sri Vidya tradition.
Built of concrete and plaster, the temple captures the South Indian tradition
in brightly painted splendor. Winters are cold here, with one to three meters
of snow—which the monks must sometimes tunnel through, igloo-style, to get from
building to building—so this temple is fully enclosed and amply heated.
The
temple is the central focus of worship and sadhana. Svami Yogananda Giri
himself performs the noon puja each day. From morning to near midnight the holy
sanctum is visited, pujas performed by the monks, offerings of fragrant flowers
made (they grow 5,000 rose bushes just for offerings), musical praises
proffered, inner quiet discovered.
Twice
daily, without fail, they gather to sing the entire Sri Lalita Sahasranama.
This began years back when the guru was in the hospital and the community
gathered to implore divine intervention on his behalf. When he recovered, they
expected this difficult daily discipline would cease, but he urged them to
continue—observing that devotees can’t go to the Goddess only when in need.
They should always fall at Her feet, whatever life’s circumstances may be.
Obediently, they have continued, and the power of their persistent devotion is
palpable.
Sri
Yogananda Giri has become Italy’s foremost Hindu spiritual figure, and today
his temple is a pilgrimage place for all Europeans. As the monastery has almost
no parking, thousands of devotees walk the five-kilometer trail on Ganesha
Chaturthi, children in tow, singing and carrying offerings of fruit and flowers
for the Lord of Obstacles.
Guided
by Svami, the sannyasins have recently changed the status of Hinduism under
Italian law. For centuries Italy only recognized the Abrahamic religions,
treating members of Eastern faiths as second-class citizens. In 1996 Swami set
out to change this, and on February 2, 2013, an agreement between the Italian
State and the Italian Hindu Union became law, an historic accomplishment that
celebrates a pluralistic nation.
Thanks
to sixteen years of effort by many—especially Jayendranatha, Svamini Ma Uma
Sakti Giri and Svamini Hamsananda Giri—Hinduism and Buddhism are now officially
recognized religions with all rights and protections, including acceptance of
marriage ceremonies, protection of temples, more support for schools and
limited state funding.
There
is profound emphasis here on sannyas and the strict spirit of renunciation.
Each initiated monk is required to surrender the world, to serve obediently, to
seek the Self within daily and to live with yogic detachment freed of concerns
for “me and mine.” The monks do virtually everything themselves, from carpentry
to plumbing, from growing food to splitting wood for the life-sustaining winter
fires (100,000 kg are cut and stacked each year).
They teach yoga to hundreds of visitors,
hold the major annual festivals, guide the spiritual lives of thousands and
still have time to raise a breed of large spaniels and cook fresh pizza twice a
month in a wood-fired oven. At Lakshmi, their publishing arm, the monks do
their own design and editing, in several languages, on Apple computers. This is
a well-honed team guided by an awakened guru, humble as individuals but
amazingly adept as an order.
Their
self-sufficiency is beautifully expressed in dozens of ornate shrines proudly
lining the pathways. While the Indian silpis were here for ten months building
the temple, the monks took pains to learn the craft. After the silpis left, the
monks designed, built, sculpted and painted these delightful Chola-style
monuments, each enshrining a Hindu Deity. There are ten forms of the Goddess
Sri Lalita Tripurasundari as well as Siva, Ganesha, Valli-Devayanai-Shanmukha,
Panchamukha Ganapati, Durga Mahadevi, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Sheshanaga Narayanar,
Sri Akara-Ukara-Makara (three murtis representing Pranava Aum). There is even a
rare series of 51 enshrined murtis representing the letters of the Sanskrit
alphabet.
Any
Hindu visiting Italy will be blessed to visit the Svami Gitananda Ashram, and
doubly blessed to meet the good souls who have given their life to build this
spiritual citadel for Europe’s growing Hindu community.
Omkarananda Ashram in Switzerland
Winterthur
lies 1,400 feet above sea level in northern Switzerland, not far from Zurich. A
hilly residential suburb is home to the Omkarananda Ashram and Divine Light
Center, a loose cluster of ten unassuming buildings. Here live some 25 monks
and nuns, led by initiated renunciates in saffron robes.
To
understand the Swiss ashram, one must understand its gifted founder,
Paramahamsa Omkarananda Saraswati. Born in 1930 in South India, he was
initiated into sannyas by Swami Sivananda in Rishikesh when he was just seventeen.
His accomplishments and institutions are legendary in India. From his high-tech
ashram on the Ganges, followers run 26 schools and two dance and music
academies. (See our full story of his life and work here: bit.ly/OmkaranandaAshram).
In
1966 the young swami was inwardly directed to teach seekers in Europe. He
founded his first European center in Switzerland; later he established a major
ashram in Austria, with centers in Germany, England and France. Ultimately he
initiated nearly 200 sannyasins and sannyasinis, who have faithfully run his
centers since his mahasamadhi in Austria in 2000.
The
heart of the community is a three-story edifice containing the multi-room
temple where Swami’s shrine is honored. This powerful chamber is filled day and
night with the compelling voice of Swami Omkarananda chanting the
Mahamrityunjaya Mantra. Puja is a central sadhana for the monastics—long,
elaborate, devotionally charged rites to Lord Siva, to the Mother Goddess and
to Swami. Room after room is filled with murtis, each space devoted to a
different divine energy. Sri Rudram is chanted in one shrine while a homa is
performed simultaneously in another. Devotional music and dance are offered to
God and guru.
In a special glass-enclosed shrine on an
upper floor, the monks have kept a remarkable peace vigil. Since 1974 they have
taken turns performing an Akhanda-Sarva-Devata havan (fire ceremony). Seated at
the havan, the orange-clad renunciates chant and offer wood, ghee and prayers
into the holy fire, prayers for “the peace, progress and prosperity of all
mankind.” For decades this shanti homa was perpetual, 24 hours a day, but now
it is tended during the day as staff permits.
Outlying
buildings hold the computer publishing offices, auditorium, kitchens,
residences and classrooms. The ashram runs a dynamic publishing program, which
includes two newsletters drawing from a vast archive of Sri Swami Omkarananda’s
philosophical discourses. He was a true orator, witty, incisive, poetic, a
master at moving the spiritual forces of all in his presence. The lecture hall,
library and reading rooms serve a steady stream of seekers and pilgrims who
come to learn of yoga and Hinduism as taught by the founder. While most of the monastics
are European, visitors to this religious sanctuary are mostly Hindus who have
immigrated to the country.
Omkarananda Ashram in Austria
Sri
Swami Omkarananda’s Austrian monastery was established in 1985 in the foothills
of the Alps, surrounded by forest. Boasting Europe’s largest Meru Sri Chakra
and a library of over 40,000 spiritual books, it has 25 sannyasins and
brahmacharinis in residence. Pujas and havans are regularly performed in the
temple shrines, and Vedic mantras and slokas are recited. As in Winterthur, the
sadhakas follow a strict Sri Vidya tradition toward achieving life’s highest
goal: Self Realization.
Swami
Omkarananda was boldly Hindu. Unlike many, he was unafraid of using the H-word
in public. His was a mystical path, strongly founded on mantra yoga, meditation
and worship of the Divine. His emphasis on the guru-shishya relationship
sustains those who fell at his feet during life. A central teaching was:
“Practice the yoga of synthesis. Be a karma yogi, bhakti yogi, raja yogi, mantra
yogi, jnana yogi. Love the all-pervading, all-knowing God with all your heart
and soul. Experience Him here and now, and distribute the fruits of that
experience to all mankind.”
The Vedanta Center in France
Ramakrishna-Vivekananda
Vedanta Centers have come up throughout the world and have been known for over
a hundred years as enclaves of pure Advaita Vedanta. Their monks receive
instruction at any of their facilities around the world, serving three years as
a pre-probationer and then two more years as a probationer living at Belur Math
in India. If qualified, they take vows of chastity, renunciation and service. A
brahmachari who passes the next four years of rigorous training is ordained
into sannyas at Belur Math and given the saffron robes of a swami.
Europe
has Vedanta centers in Germany, France, Netherlands, England, Switzerland and
Russia. Most also serve as small monasteries, headed by one of the order’s
800-plus sannyasins who oversees the religious life of residents and provides
teachings and outreach into the local community.
The
Centre Védantique monastery in Gretz-Armainvilliers, France, a rural town
twenty miles southeast of Paris, was founded in 1948. Since 1990 it has been
under the spiritual leadership of Swami Veetamohananda, the resident
administrator and primary teacher. Originally from Bengal, Swami was initiated
as a monk in 1971 following ten years of training in Chennai and Kolkata. He is
a gifted musician, both vocal and instrumental, and a key member of the
interfaith movement in France. He writes prolifically and travels often to
perform pujas and to speak on Vedanta, especially the Gita and Patanjali’s Yoga
Sutras, which he believes encompass the
entire Indian religious tradition.
Nearly
all of Swami’s followers are French. He notes, “Europeans admire the Hindu
ideals of tolerance and calmness and therefore accept Hinduism readily.” The
Hindus in and around Paris are mostly from the French Colony of Pondicherry,
with a growing Sri Lankan presence, but visitors come from all over Europe for
the ceremonies and feasts, for lectures and interfaith gatherings, to see Swami
or participate in the Hindu form of communal life.
A
three-story mansion houses the monastery’s temple, bookstore, Swami’s quarters,
classrooms, kitchen and dining facilities. Newer facilities house residents and
guests. The 13-acre property also has cow pastures and four beehives.
Three
monks live at the center along with nine spiritual aspirants, five men and four
women. Residents share the myriad duties of every spiritual community—the
reception of visitors, building and grounds maintenance, housework, cooking,
etc. All are committed to a simple life of pujas, meditation, spiritual
discourse, daily service and special events for the public. Up to 150 visitors
come for major festivals, like Mahasivaratri. The center has little other
engagement with the local community, though it responds to calls for
assistance.
The
day here begins at 6am with fifteen minutes of mantras and 45 minutes of
silence. This is followed by sacred singing and readings from the Bhagavad Gita
and the teachings of Swami Vivekananda and Sri Ramakrishna. Breakfast is at
8:00, followed by the day’s karma yoga. From 11am to noon there is puja, which
is optional. A veggie lunch at noon is followed by a short siesta and then
afternoon seva. Tea is served at 4:30. An evening meditation and prayer is held
from 6:30 to 7:15; dinner is at 7:30. After dinner is a scriptural reading, and
by 9:30 all residents are free to retire.
In
addition to this daily routine are regular weekly pujas, satsangs and classes.
The monastery also offers monthly and seasonal residential learning programs.
This
system of community-scaled monasteries, networked together and reaching into
major cities around the globe, has proven immensely effective and enduring, all
due to the training, sadhana and dedication of the swamis of the Ramakrishna
Order.
One rightly expects to find Hindu temples,
institutions and ashrams in Europe, and they are there in abundance as our
feature stories reveal. That there are also serious monasteries in these
Western nations, headed by well-schooled, well-trained spiritual leaders and
run by cenobites from many nations is both a surprise and a delight.
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
(Continued...)
(My humble salutations to Sadguru Sri Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
ji, Satguru Bodhianatha Velayanswami ji, Hinduism
Today and Articles writers for the collection)
(The Blog is reverently for all the seekers of truth,
lovers of wisdom and to share the Hindu Dharma with others on the
spiritual path and also this is purely a non-commercial blog)
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