NEW YORK, NEW YORK, July 16, 2025 (RNS): Illuminated by a skylight at the center of a small factory-turned-Hindu temple in Queens sits a murti of the Divine Mother — a 1-ton, 6-foot-tall statue of the South Indian village Goddess Mariamman, an incarnation of Kali, the Deity of time and death. Smoke from cigarettes and incense fills the room, and bottles of rum sit next to fruit at the altar. “Our religion is very rural, very village like,” said Chandni Kalu, 31, a priestess at the Richmond Hill temple. “It’s very raw.” Even other Hindus might find Sunday worship services at the Shri Shakti Mariammaa temple unfamiliar. The mostly Indo-Caribbean congregants worship Goddess Kali, who also represents transcendental knowledge that can manifest within, or spiritually possess, Her followers. At a recent service, a young male pujari, or lay priest, shook and danced vigorously through the crowd, entranced with Shakti, the feminine energy that inhabits someone possessed by Kali.

“We are a healing temple,” said Sharda Ramsami, one of the original members of the temple when it was founded in 2008. “Whether it’s something physical or something spiritual, we are always the last resort, and when people come here, they’re desperate for help. I think that’s what’s most powerful: that desperation, and then here’s the answer that no one else could provide for them. Mother knows.” Since 2008, Shri Shakti Mariammaa has been a safe haven for women and members of the LGBTQ community. But the temple risks closure if it cannot make costly improvements. Without more than $150,000 in necessary upgrades to the space, the landlord and the city will move to push the temple out. A GoFundMe campaign, co-signed by a number of organizations that have used the temple’s space for meetings, has been circulating since June. In November, at a court date to pay an outstanding fine, the temple will ask the city for an extension to figure out its next steps.

More at source.
https://religionnews.com/2025/07/16/a-temple-for-the-unheard-and-unseen-kali-worshippers-in-queens-at-risk-of-losing-their-spiritual-safe-haven/

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