NEW YORK: The 2nd Hindu Mandir Priests’ Conference held at Shri Surya Narayan Mandir in Jamaica, NY met with huge success judging from the sizeable attendance, joyful expressions at the end and because of its informative two days of interactions.
The Conference was hosted by Shri Surya Narayan Mandir in collaboration with the Bhavaanee Maa Mandir, the New York Sanatana Mandir and the United Community Mandir.
The Inaugural Session of the Conference got underway on the evening of Friday May 31, with more than 130 Hindu devotees, Pandits and Swamis in attendance. The start was with 50 plus priests chanting the Ganesha Atharvashirsha. Pandit Ram Hardowar, the Spiritual Leader of the SSN Mandir, then extended a warm welcome to all the participants.
This was followed with presentations by erudite speakers. The audience listened in rapt attention as the speakers made very thoughtful presentations covering the challenges faced by priests in the community.
The notable ones were by Amrutur Srinivasan on the work of the USA Pandits’ Parishad in Guyana and in USA by Pandit Parasram, and Swamini Svatmavidyananda’s talk on devotion, dharma, prayer and the priesthood. The Arya Spiritual Center’s Dharmacharya Pandit Ramlall spoke about the challenges facing the Hindu in hostile societies.
The Saturday session started at 6 am with yoga, pranayama and devotional singing by young Hindus of the community. There followed six business sessions ably emceed by youthful Sarika Persaud, assisted by rotating moderators who introduced the various speakers.
The sessions covered topics such as Priests’ Role: Issues & Concerns; Community’s issues & Concerns: Devotees’ & Executives’ Inputs; Sharing resources, the GOTO Group; and Education & Training. The appreciative audience was treated to some very scholarly and passionate presentations covering issues as varied as the role of priests and their assimilation in the North American society to Hindu Chaplaincy in the University setting, and continuing education and skill development strategies.
In the third session dealing with Community’s issues and concerns, young Aneesh Bairavasundaram stole everyone’s heart with a polished presentation of “My story: Growing up in a Priest’s family”. Aneesh spoke about the expectations of parents for young Hindus “to blindly follow rituals” laid down by their elders, and that in the “North American context, blind faith is looked down upon”. As this young man walked away from the podium, he was treated to loud and prolonged applause for the simple and articulate manner in which he shared his story.
One outstanding feature of this conference was the number of youthful Hindus who made presentations. In addition to Aneesh, there was also Austin Ayer who spoke about the training available at universities in the Maharishi Organization, Devi Mehrotra who spoke about the Hindu Students Council at Yale University, and Dr. Anand Ramnarine, who called for a “national Hindu Voice” as a means of solidifying our Hindu identity.
There were lively Q&A segments after some sessions, which demonstrated that the members of the audience shared strong concern about the topics and presentations, and confirmed the need for this Conference to be organized on a regular basis.
After all the presentations, the participants unanimously approved two resolutions for action: Recognizing the need to enhance communication among priests in North America with the sole object of building a Dharmic Bridge between priests and the community they serve; and resolve to establish a Pandit Sabha, a communication network.
At the close, Dharmacharya Rishi B. Misir of the Federation of Hindu Mandirs, thanked the Conference Committee for its vision and dedication to solving Hindu issues by organizing the event.
Sudhir Vyas
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