Places of worship adapt to serve, beating virus scare

Chennai

Hindu temples in the US have become tech-savvy to catch up with the lockdown situation.

So, be it elaborate puja for your favourite deity, the daily archana for the ishta devata, or watching the abhishekam of your favourite lords, all you need to do is just like and follow the temple’s Facebook page. In comes the notification to tune in.

If you are otherwise busy that time, there is always recorded feed available for the leisure watch. Thanks to technology and social media connections, Gods too have found their ways of being in touch with their bakthas during times of social distancing.

“I have never attended the nitya puja regularly at Pittsburgh Sri Venkateswara temple as much as I watch its live streaming these days on Facebook, all because of being stuck at my home due to lockdown,” said Srinivas a resident of New Jersey for whom travelling to Pittsburgh, driving for five hours, used to be a onceina-year routine.

Some temples organise online archanas and special pujas for devotees. Sitting at home the benefits are being reaped. On all special occasions like birthdays and anniversaries, we are still able to do special puja to God by making remote arrangements.

Though it does not bestow the experience of being there in person, the divine commitment is fulfilled,
 feels many.

The Sri Guruvaayoorappan Temple, New Jersey telecasts all the important pujas on their Facebook page. Watching their live Nadaswaram kutcheri, performed exclusively in sanctity almost every day, is a great blessing for the devotees.

All temples are operating the nitya puja by their own priests so meticulously and most of them are sharing the blessings of God through the social media platform, these offer so just much solace at a time when everything around looks so bleak.

Monthly pravachans, satsangs, yoga courses, online sangeet and bhajan, sangeetha sevas performed remotely are being telecast on the temple’s website or social media handles, making sure the people are spiritually engaged and feel diverted from loneliness and boredom of staying home all the time. Added to these are the interesting videos from sacred shrines in India, taking their stroll through the social media ensuring a 360 degree around the world impact.

The Memorial Day weekend, falling on the last Monday of May, is an important long weekend break in the US. It signals the onset of travel-friendly weather, kick-starting the American’s major outing plans.

For many immigrant Indians, this is also the time when their parents visit for vacation from India and so finding Hindu temples as a good place to tour during these long weekends is the best option for them.

Besides offering good spiritual connect, these visits guarantee sumptuous and tasty Indian food through the temple canteens that usually is an added attraction. This year, with temples closed, most spiritually devoted Indians felt something was not right in their long weekend schedule.

Interestingly, some were lucky to catch up with Mahalakshmi temple at Delaware, that had allowed devotees to have a drive-in darshan on Memorial Day. Regulated by volunteers, the devotees had to take appointments to visit the temple for darshan by staying in their cars.

Celebrating Ramzan, some mosques organised drive-in prayers with special permissions to ensure social distancing.

Churches too organised special services in honour of those who lost their valuable lives due to the deadly pandemic.

Though the places of worship are not officially opened, yet these online events offer the connection between the devotees and the temple. Yet these temples have lost a lot of people traffic that is quite important from the revenue perspective.

The temple priests and the volunteers gear up to keep the temple running which is highly commendable. The financial burden is hard on temples which keep the faith and culture of the immigrants intact in a foreign land.

It is very interesting to note that many of these Hindu temples also organise food drives and do annadhanam for the deserving ones regularly,thus contributing to the community during the pandemic.
 
It is just so amazing to watch how these places of worship adapt to the demanding situation, be it engaging with the devotees or the community at large.

Their roles, like many of the others in the society, will be subject to major alterations once the virus makes an exit from our lives. It is going to be complex and challenging as these places of worship remain to be places where large gatherings of the community happen regularly.

The major attraction for the Indian immigrants to be visiting these temples, besides the spiritual reasons, is the community connect that these temples offer in a foreign land. Many activities like spiritual and cultural teaching happen in these temple spaces.
 
Beyond all these, temples are surely the place for Indians to find the like-minded people of Indian origin come and mingle.

So, however, technology tries to replace reality, the connect with God and real people is more important for everyone to pursue what they yearn for. When the country opens all its sectors, completely new rules for temple visits will be put in place for sure.

How much of these will change the dynamics of the people wanting to visit temples remains to be seen.
All said and done Hindu temples in America have adapted technologically to an enviable extent to serve the community well even during the pandemic!
 
— The writer is a journalist based in New York