Message from President

Dear Community Members:

At the outset we would like to sincerely thank you for your continued support of the Temple and its activities. As you know all the time, effort and money to run the Temple comes through individual contributions by members like you. Your continued support is important for our mission.

The first step towards fulfilling the Rochester community’s dream of having our own Temple was taken in September 2004 with the purchase of our current premises. The long-term goal was obviously to have a free-standing full-service Hindu Temple in Rochester which conforms to our traditions. In the meanwhile we have worked towards two major objectives: a) to pay down the mortgage debt and reduce interest payments on our current premises and b) to further our mission of promoting Hindu religious and cultural activities in the community. Thanks to our community’s support, we have succeeded beyond our expectations in both these objectives.

The community’s response is largely due to the wonderful collective effort to promote religious and cultural activities in the Temple. There is a feeling that we have a place we can call our own where we can celebrate major religious, cultural and personal events. A number of deities have been installed, thanks to our donors. All major religious events have been celebrated with great community participation. The performances of priest-led Pujas on major religious occasions have also been well received. Every third Saturday community satsangs are held allowing the wide and beautiful spectrum of Hindu method of Puja to be expressed. Numerous birthdays, baby showers and even a marriage have been conducted in the Temple! Adults have formed shloka, Bhajan, Satsang and Gita Study groups to meet their individual and collective spiritual needs. On the cultural front there are language, yoga, culture and dance classes being held at the premises which cater mostly to our most important constituency, our children. Twice a year, during Deepavali and Holi celebrations, we get to see our children and adults perform on the big stage to showcase their varied talents. We have a very vibrant and dedicated community that is keen to preserve its heritage.

We have indeed made much progress in a short time. The other major step we took this year is to hire an in-house priest to not only perform daily Pujas for the deities and during major religious events, but also to cater to individual community member’s needs so that all traditional Hindu rites and rituals are performed. Our Priest, Shri Vamsi Krishna Kanduri, hails from Tirupathi. He is young (22 yrs old) and recently graduated from Tirupathi Veda Paathashala College with a BA in Sanskrit. Apart from Telugu (his mother tongue), he speaks conversational English, Hindi and Tamil. He can understand Kannada as well.

The hiring of a priest has obviously placed an increased financial burden on the Temple. However, thanks to a dozen families that agreed to substantially increase their monthly and/or annual contributions to the Temple, majority of expenses of hiring a priest have been offset. We gratefully acknowledge their contributions and hope others will seriously consider making a monthly contribution that will go towards the upkeep and maintenance of the Temple as well its future growth.

Thank you again for your time, effort and money! We hope and pray that your life is sheltered from the vagaries of these difficult economic times. May we continue to help and support those less fortunate than us.

Yours sincerely,

Suresh T. Chari, President, Hindu Samaj Temple

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Hindu Samaj Temple of Minnesota, Inc.