Maha Siva Rathri Feb. 17 Holi Celebrations Mar. 7 Sri Rama

Maha Siva Rathri Feb. 17
Holi Celebrations Mar. 7
Sri Rama Navami Mar. 28
January, February, March 2015 ­ Volume 14 ­ Issue 1
PATRIKA
The Hindu Temple of Wisconsin
Diwali
BOARD MEMBERS
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
President
Yogesh Khatri
414­467­3032
[email protected]
Vice President
Dr. L.K. Bharadwaj
414­332­2248
[email protected]
Secretary
Mayank Mital
414­467­5353
[email protected]
Treasurer
Suneeti Joshi
262­784­7796
[email protected]
Tax I.D. 39­1848726
Anand Adavi
414­745­3872
[email protected]
Venkat Kodali
414­732­0059
[email protected]
Kumar Iyer
262­794­0674
[email protected]
Satya Karri
262­264­5631
[email protected]
Sushmita Acharya
262­389­5684
[email protected]
Dr. Anoop Dhingra
262­252­7185
[email protected]
Himanshu Parikh
414­331­8769
[email protected]
Dr. Laxman Kailas
920­251­1093
[email protected]
Anup Khullar
414­406­0211
[email protected]
Anil Mehta
414­351­3815
[email protected]
Dr. Krishna Mylavarapu
414­975­1911
[email protected]
Amratlal Lodhia
262­821­4372
[email protected]
Shefalli Vallecha
414­559­0848
[email protected]
:
From resident
the P Yogesh Khatri
Dear Devotees,
I wish all of you a very happy new year and pray for a
prosperous 2015 for you all! The early snow we witnessed
this year did indeed scare us out of our wits. But as much as
we busy ourselves preparing for a severe winter surpassing
the last one, let us also keep nourishing the hope that our
'winter blues' will be short lived this time around!
The year 2014 has truly been an exceptional one, with the
various activities at the temple serving as powerful magnets
for attracting and drawing together our widely dispersed
community in Wisconsin. Underlining the strength and the
rapid growth of the community, each of the major religious
events at the temple has easily attracted well over 1500
devotees. Like many of you who have been a part of the
community for a long time, our family too has witnessed this
fantastic growth of our temple and the community over the
years with much pride and joy!
Our annual fund raising dinner was held on October 17th at
the Country Springs hotel in Pewaukee. Once again, it proved
to be a great success due to the good wishes and support of
all the devotees who attended and donated generously. We
had pledges of over $150,000 , of which the temple has
collected over $100,000 already. These were new pledges,
with commitments ranging from three to four years. In his
inspiring address as our Guest Speaker for the evening, Dr.
Nalini Guda exhorted the devotees to give generously of their
time, money, and energy in support of the growth and
expansion of the temple. Sachin Chedda and Sumana
Tumuluri did an outstanding job as the MC's for the evening.
Ram Tumuluri, Himanshu Parikh, and Sarit Singhal presented
the financials and the future expansion plans of the temple.
The guest thoroughly enjoyed the reception, entertainment,
and the delicious food. My thanks go to Kumar Iyer, Dinesh
Sanghavi, and Gopal Ratnam for helping with the food
coordination. Mayank Mital was instrumental in helping
coordinate the event, and in arranging the comedian Dan
Nainan's entertainment performance for the evening. Anand
Adavi, Satya Karri, and Venkat Kodali played a key role in
organizing and in helping promote the fundraising event.
Since the temple's inception over a decade ago, we have made
great strides toward nurturing and nourishing our rich
tradition, and in moving forward vigorously on all fronts,
religious, cultural, social, and educational, which are of deep
interest and concern to our community. Our success on this
score is due in no small measure to your continuing generous
support, as well as to the over-flowing commitment of time
and energy to our common cause. The temple has now made
it easy for all of us to donate continuously on a monthly basis
through the ACH. For your convenience, ACH forms have
been made available in the current issue of the Patrika.
Please remember that your monthly donations could be as
low as $25, $15, $10, or even a dollar a day! Our goal initially
is to have over 150 devotees sign up in 2015 for an
automatic monthly deduction from their checking accounts.
Please open your hearts and give generously to support the
cost of the critically needed expansion, maintenance, and
daily functioning of our temple.
Tulsi Vivah, organized jointly with Gujarati Samaj of
Wisconsin, was celebrated with much gusto on Nov 2nd. With
over 400 people from the Guajrati Community attending the
event, the ceremonial was highly successful and very well
attended. Our temple priest Jagadish Acharya officiated at
the ceremony and did an outstanding job. I would like to
thank Amrit Patel, Naginbhai Patel, Sanjay Patel, Swapnil
Modi, Venkat Kodali and the RC committee for organizing
this most wonderful event. We encourage all community
members to think about sponsoring and holding their own
particular events at the temple as well. Our board is
committed to facilitating and coordinating such events in
support of the various Hindu groups and organizations in the
community.
With over 1700 devotees converging on the temple, the
Diwali crowd broke all previous records this year! The
Religious Committee planned well ahead to spread out the
crowd with several time allocations reserved for the Lakshmi
Puja. The cultural program organized by Sanchita Singhal
and Nidhi Oberoi put out an interesting and enjoyable
display of talents, for which the coordinators and the
performers deserve our appreciation and thanks. The
members of the cafeteria committee -- Anand Adavi, Kumar
Iyer, and Dinesh Sanghavi coordinated the food program
during Diwali and worked tirelessly the whole day. They
served a record 2000 plus food plates over the two days!
Fireworks again proved to be one of the biggest attractions
during the festive evening. I take this opportunity to thank
Frank Olsen and Rick Schmitt who have been helping the
temple with the firework displays for over 10 years. These
two gentlemen have never asked for a single penny from the
temple and have always been eager to volunteer their time
for us. They provide a worthy model for all of us to emulate!
Our temple is at the take-off point for critical expansion. We
are planning to add approximately 8000 square feet of space
to the existing temple. Architectural plans have been
cont’d on next page
approved by the state, and the choice of a contractor has been nearly finalized. We hope to
perform the ground-breaking ceremony during January 2015, with the construction work
to begin in right earnest in late March or early April of 2015, weather permitting. Our goal is to complete the expansion work within
seven to nine months thereafter. We will continue to work diligently with the architects and the contractors during the construction
period in order to minimize any disruption during normal temple hours and during our religious events.
The election committee headed by Dr. Sadanand Manoli had sent out nomination forms for the eight vacant positions in the board. On
behalf of the board of directors, I would like to thank the outgoing members, Kishore Acharya, Shalini Ashokan, Ram Tumuluri and
Mahendra Gupta, for their commitment and for making the temple a better place. I would like to welcome the newly elected board
members Anup Khullar, Sushmita Acharya, Shefali Valecha, and Anil Mehta. I would also like to welcome Himanshu Parikh, Satya Karri,
Anoop Dhingra, and Yogesh Khatri, the members whose terms were expiring but who are returning to the board. They all will be
joining hands with the continuing members to help make the temple stronger and a vital part of our community life.
It has been an honor and a privilege for me to have served as the president of the temple for the past one year. I am thankful for your
good wishes, support, and active collaboration during this period. These have gone a long way in making my tenure a fruitful and
productive one!
Once again, here's wishing you all a very happy new year!
Dasara
President’s Message (cont’d)
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Balagokulam
Diwali Food Donation Drive 2014: This year, Balagokulam Swyamsevaks decided to do a
food drive to donate food for the less fortunate. Swayamsevaks raised about 1650 pounds
of food. By doing this these swayamsevaks have learnt to share a small part of what they
have with someone else who is less fortunate. They have done this as a part of their Diwali
celebration to share their happiness with the less fortunate who might not have enough
food. Thus implementing the ‘jana seva’ goal of “sharing is caring”.
Adopt-a-highway: The Swayamsevaks have also taken part in the Adopt-AHighway project. This project was done on West Capital Drive this summer. This
project has taught them to keep the community clean. It also helped them in learning
that our world belongs to us, so we should make every effort to keep it clean!
Balagokulam Activities at the Hindu Temple of Wisconsin
by Shriram Kelkar
Balagokulam activities are guided by the methodology of the Hindu Swayamsevak
Sangh. Our Balagokulam has been actively involved in community building activities
by teaching and inculcating in the children and their families the core values of good
citizenship, sound leadership skills, and the central importance of our Hindu culture and
tradition in our individual and collective life. Classes are conducted every Sunday at
noon at the temple and are free for children and adults in all age groups. "We Achieve
by Our Own Efforts" is our governing motto!
This past quarter has been quite a busy one for our Balagokulam shakha at the Hindu
Temple. In addition to organizing a major event in support of the Ekal Vidyalaya
Concert, our swayamsevaks and their families participated actively in the Diwali Food
Donation Drive and the Highway Cleanup Program. The following report of our food
donation and highway cleanup activities in the last quarter of 2014 has been prepared
by our kishore swayamsevak, Haripriya Tyada:
Venkateswara Jayanthi
Sewa, Service or Volunteering
RELIGIOUS CORNER
by Shriram Kelkar
“Helping something or someone with” is called by different terms by different people.. Sewa, service,
volunteering, etc. Each approach has its place and use. Lets take a look. Service in western world is in many cases a deal, spend $40 on special
gym classes that would fund “Cure for Cancer”. both the parties benefit
in that process. Everyone to a certain extent is looking for “What’s in it
for me?” in any activity, this approach lot of times gives tangible
returns to the donor.
Hinduism has a different approach; sewa. Krishna in bhagwatgita said:
Karmanye Vadhikaraste, ma faleshu kadhachan: Do your work without any expectations of anything in
return, nothing tangible, not even fame. Just the satisfaction, something that would give much long term
happiness than other tangible gains.
Once Rockefeller (one of world’s richest persons of his time) went to Swami Vivekananda and wrote him a big
donations check. Swami Ji was still quiet. Rockefeller asked him that shouldn’t you thank me at the least?
Swami ji said, YOU should thank me instead, for helping you serve the poor. Rockefeller was so humbled
that he donated a lot more later to help poor.
For many sewa is donation, sacrifice, pity on the poor. What if sewa equals love for
some people? Geeta doesn’t have the word sewa anywhere in 18 chapters. It just talks
of kartavya (duty) and love. I love my family, helping my kid, sister or wife is not
donation or pity. For a saint like “Amma”, the whole world is her family.. Vasudhaiva
Kutumbakam... service for her is caring for her family members..a mother to a child, a sister to a brother.
In Western education system, volunteering is encouraged and in some way part of the
school system. Early on students are taught to care and share which is definitely a good thing. Once a
teenager told me that he is required to volunteer 4050 hours to get admission to a prestigious college.
‘Required to’ and “volunteer’... aren’t they contradictory terms in a way?
A saint was asked once, how much should one give?... every dollar every
hour contributed counts and more the better are good answers but the saint
told a story from Mahabharat. Pandav did Rajasuya yagna and Yudhistir was
donating food and many other things generously, everybody was happy. In
the middle of all this a mongoose came and started rolling on the floor where
people were eating. People were suprised to see that he was half gold and half
brown when it spoke to Yudhistir, “king, all the charity you are doing is no good”.
Everybody was shocked, he donated half the kingdom and how dare mongoose say it’s no good! Mongoose
continued, “Once there was a brahmin who was poor and had not eaten for last many days. It was famine area
but somehow that day he managed to get flour for 4 rotis. While he and his wife and 2 kids sat down to eat it,
a really hungry person came. Brahmin offered his roti which he ate but he was still
hungry, wife and kids offered their rotis and then he was filled and left. Next
morning, villagers found the family died of hunger. I was hungry too and I was
trying to eat the roti pieces, whenever the flour touched my body, it turned gold!
Since then, I am going places in order to turn my other half of skin into gold. Oh
King, all this food couldn’t turn even 1 hair of my body into gold”. Yudhistir got
the message. The learned person continued, give enough that it pinches or
hurts a little if not a lot. If I give less than I normally tip, it won’t give much of
joy or satisfaction either! In other words, the hurt should balance the joy.
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New Year's Message from Siddheshvari Devi Ji (Didi Ji)
Every time a new year comes around, we all celebrate with joy. We should reflect on whether a
new year is indeed a joyous occasion. Suppose you have $100,000 in the bank. If you spend $50,000 you are not happy knowing that
you have only $50,000 left.
The human body has been given to us for one purpose only, and that is God-realization. How far have we reached? How much distance
have we covered so far? When a new year comes around, we should be reflecting on these questions. But we don't. We celebrate the
arrival of the New Year. We feel satisfied that fifty years of our life has passed, or seventy years of our life has passed. Is human life a
burden that we celebrate the passing of years? If someone has been sentenced to ten years in prison, it is understandable that he
would celebrate every New Year because it means that he will soon be free. But what freedom can we expect after the end of this life?
Will we attain liberation from the cycle of birth and death? Will we go to God's divine abode? That is very unlikely because we achieve
the next life based on our thoughts at the time of death, and our final thoughts are determined by our attachments.
So, the New Year should be a time of reflection for each one of us. What did I achieve in the past year? How attached am I to God? How
detached am I from the world? Similarly, we should reflect on our progress at the end of each month and each day. Every night at
bedtime, put a few moments aside for contemplation. How did I behave today? How many times did I get angry? How much time did I
spend thinking of God? This contemplation will help us reduce our mistakes a little each day, and one day we will be able to surrender
ourselves completely to God.
But we fail in this aspect. We feel “I am not going to die so soon. I am only 80 years old.” Let us say that you do live a life of 100 years or
even 200 years. What after that? If we do a little self-analysis on a daily basis, we will soon realize that we have been very careless so
far. We have achieved the very rare human birth; we have also met a spiritual guide who has explained the essence of the scriptures in
layman's language to us. But we spend our time contemplating the world. We are committed to improving the material lives of our
family members and friends, but rarely do we think about the soul. We are the soul, not the body. We will be forced to leave the body
one day, not by choice but at the time which is predetermined for us.
The arrival of the New Year is an opportunity for all seekers to reflect on our progress of the past years. We should decide that we will
force the mind to think about God in the coming year even more than before. The mind is accustomed to thinking about the world. It
will not think about God automatically. We will have to force it to do so and our strength in doing so lies in our intellect. The intellect
has the power to turn the mind from the world and attach it to God, all with logic and reasoning. The more we think about God, the
more we will get attached to Him and when the attachment becomes 100% we will achieve the aim of life, which is God realization.
Happy New Year!
PATRIKA
The Hindu Temple of Wisconsin
PO Box 495
N4063 W243 Pewaukee Road
Pewaukee, WI 53072
Phone (262) 695­1200
www.OurHTW.org
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