New Hindu Temple in Staten Island

Posted by Harsh Nevatia Jun 6, 2008

Last week a new Hindu temple was consecrated in New York’s Staten Island amid much celebration. Outside India, the Hindu diaspora have to work hard to build a temple. The organization of the permissions and the funds take years. In the absence of a proper temple worship is conducted privately at homes or in makeshift meeting halls, which are much less satisfying.

The opening of the temple in Staten Island illustrated a very important aspect of Hindu worship. That is the need to consecrate a place of worship according to the methods laid out in the scriptures. This act of consecration breathes life into the idols. Just before the consecration ceremony Mr. Ram Nair, a trustee of the temple, said, “The power isn’t invoked in them yet. In a couple of hours, it will be.”

In the ritual of consecration 108 golden vessels, filled with water and each containing a coconut, were tied with red threads. The other end of many of these threads went to the mini-shrines called mandaps, which housed statues of gods. The prayers of the devotees travel through the threads and into the idols, breathing life into them. The water represents the infinite element of God and the idols are the visible manifestations. This process transfers the divine power of the infinite God to the idols. When Hindus stand in front of idols to pray, it is this divine power that has been received by the idols in the consecration ceremony that blesses them. Durga, Saraswati and Hanuman were some of the deities represented in the temple.

This temple will cater to the 500 odd Hindu families from different parts of India who live on Staten Island. Earlier they had to travel to Queens or Edison to worship in a temple.