Vraj Hindu Temple

Vraj Hindu Temple in October 2011

The Vraj Hindu Temple is located in Schuylkill County, in Eastern Pennsylvania, USA, two miles west of the intersection of Routes 183 and 895. It is a multimillion-dollar temple or haveli covering 300 acres (1.2 km²) of the land. The purpose of this temple is to spread Hindu religion in USA and allow younger generations to carry love, dedication, devotion and servitude towards their culture. Vraj is also known as Noontan Nadalaya, and abode for God ShriNathji (a manifestation of Krishna). Vraj has an average of 100,000 Hindu pilgrims per year. Vraj offers daily prayers (Darshans), annual events and volunteer opportunities for youth to serve their community.

History

Vraj Hindu Temple was founded in 1988 by the religious group from Harvard University who were practicing Hinduism. Basically, Vraj, known previously as Institute of Indian Heritage, was founded to fulfill the religious, spiritual, social, and cultural needs of the Hindu Community of North America.

Purpose

The purpose of this temple is to transform or pass on the Hinduism’s religious and cultural value to younger generation living in USA. The founders of Vraj believe it is essential for temples to transform themselves into establishments that encourages society’s religious, spiritual, social and cultural needs.

Darshans (Prayer Events)

Darshan is a sanctum that is organized six times a day (everyday) as different prayers. Each Darshan has a special mood, emotion, clothes, music and food:

Mangala - to underline the auspiciousness of the beginning the day.

Shringar - Shirnathji is dressed, and a flower garland is placed around his neck.

Raajbhoog - the main meal of the day with different types of sweet.

Utthapan - for when Shrinathji is believed to wake up from afternoon siesta.

Sandhya Arati - an evening prayer with light garland.

Shayan - a celebration with music and drumming to herald the final prayer of the day.

Vraj Youth

Vraj is small organization coordinated by young volunteers and students from all over the USA. Their purpose is to engage the young Hindu community with religious and cultural values. It was created to encourage service to the community and broaden knowledge of Indian Heritage. Most of the Vraj youth are students from High School and colleges aged from 16 to 28.

Vraj youth are involved in all occasions offered from the temple such as prayers, food, festive celebrations or any other community services.

Vraj youth also organizes the biggest event of the year, called Vraj Youth Camp. Gurus are invited to give religious tips and lessons to the young community. Other activities are also organized to help the young generation with their communication skill and to improve their religious practice.

External links

• Official site