LANHAM, MARYLAND, June 25, 2011: Sacred Spaces is a series on the Belief Blog. In this installment you are taken inside the Sri Siva Vishnu Temple near Washington, DC.
On a cool spring evening just outside Washington, a steady stream of worshipers arrive at Sri Siva Vishnu Temple for prayers. The temple brings together the burgeoning Hindu population near the nation’s capitol.
In India, a temple is typically dedicated to one particular god, but the Sri Siva Vishnu Temple has many Gods to accommodate the diversity of Indian people in the area. “We have a wide variety of congregation and each one of them says, ‘I want this God’ or ‘I want that God,’ ” said S. Krishnamurthy, one of the founder/trustees of the temple.
Unlike other religions, there are no sermons, lectures or homilies. The role of the Hindu priest is to help the people pray to any of the Deities in the temple. Priests go through extensive training, from 10 to 15 years, on the methods of prayer. Even with all that training, priests are not to direct worshipers on what to do, Krishnamurthy said.
[HPI notes: Be sure to watch the well done video at source, linked above.]