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Viraja
31 July 2013, 04:10 PM
Namaste,

Wonderful god murthis for Navaratri are available at Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, PA. The bookstore has a collection of murthis - all made of plastic and having very nice details for sale for a very reasonable price. There are several online stores that sell god murthis during Navaratri times but the prices are too expensive. At Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, I bought 2 murthis, one of Sri Kaliya Nardhana Krishna and another Sri Narasimha, both about 10 - 12 inches (pic attached), weighing pretty heavy, made of tough plastic, for about $18.00 each. The collection at the bookstore included murthis of Sri Rama darbar, Sri Krishna (varying poses), Sri Hanuman, Sri Lakshmi - Narayana, Lord Shiva pariwar (Shiva, parvathi, Ganesha, Skanda), 3-headed Ganesha, Rama practicing archery (a very beautiful idol!) and so forth. While comparing the online murthis sold for a price of anywhere between $50 - $100 for the same size piece for murthis made of clay, these prices are unbeatable! I checked out an murthis and a tag at the bottom said 'Krishna Culture' - not sure if Krishna culture (online) sells such murthis too.

Enjoy purchasing! :)

ShivaFan
31 July 2013, 10:20 PM
Namaste Vijaya

I WILL BE TRAVELING TO PENN STATE LATER IN AUGUST, I will fly into PIT airport, then on to a town about 25 miles from Pittsburg...

Where is this temple located? Is it near Pittsburg?

Any nice temples to visit there ?

Om Namah Sivaya

Viraja
01 August 2013, 07:44 AM
Namaste ShivaFanji,

There seems to be quite some temples in PA.

We stayed at Harrisburg, the Pennsylvanian capitol, because we had lived there some 16 years ago. From Harrisburg, we went to 2 temples (and heard of 2 more).

First we visited the 'Hari Temple' located at New Cumberland - this is about 20 min from Harrisburg. Website: http://www.haritemple.org/ - This is a very small temple, actually consisting of one big room and enshrines Sri Rama as the predominant deity, apart from Ram there are wall mounted smaller images of other deities as well. When we went there, it was completely deserted except for the priest who is originally from Hyderabad, India but speaks Tamil well. He told of one 'Vraj' temple which is said is very large but one has to take 83-North from Harrisburg to go there and he also spoke of one 'SwamiNarayan' temple, both of which we did not have time to visit.

This temple of Sri Dakshinamoorthy is located at Saylorsburg, PA. It is about 1 1/2 hrs drive from Harrisburg. Though the temple is open early in the morning, and has aarthi done thrice a day, one around 6:30 AM, another at noon, the most important aarthi followed by free (and delicious, restaurant quality) dinner is at 6:00 - 6:30 PM. The priest recites slokas which can be followed by devotees easily as there are printouts given for the same containing the slokas in English. People come with garlands made of 'Kala Channa' (Black Chickpeas) - we basically soak the Chickpeas and string them up to a count of 108 in a garland and when given to the priest, he will garland the deity with it. Right now, the main Shrine is closed as they are renovating the temple for 'Kumbabhishekam' around Aug 29th but they are having the ceremonies going with the 'urchavar'. Lots of 1-week classes for children and a stay-aboard week for adults are being offered, so when we went we could see lots of elderly parents and little children.

As you will be going to Pittsburg, ofcourse you might be knowing about Sri Venkateswara Temple there. I love that temple, a must see!

charitra
01 August 2013, 08:21 AM
http://www.arshavidya.org/home.html

" Arsha Vidya Gurukulam (Under the auspices of Arsha Vidya Pitham) is an institute for the traditional study of Advaita Vedanta, Sanskrit, Yoga, Ayurveda, astrology, and other classical Indian disciplines"
The OP was talking about an ashram located in a very small town in Pennsylvania run by Swami Daynanada's organization. A few years ago, we stayed for a week at the Saylorsburg ashram for one of those retreats run by the ashram. I think Dattatreya was th only murti one gets to see there. The 'condos' are reasonably priced and one sees a medium size hindu crowd descending on the ashram during those retreats or courses. Yes food is served free for all the attendees regardless of registration for the course, so therefore nearby local residents may attend the lectures and eat for free. Those who have small children will benefit most by staying at the gurukulam. Separate programs are scheduled for adults and children within the same ashram. The caucasian woman who was teaching yoga lessons was one heck of a serious memeber of the team, my wife remembers her even now. I excused myself for the yoga lessons and started spending time talking with others about the faith instead!
The swami that runs the gurukulam is called viditatmanandaji. He, right after completion of his engineering degree from NewYork , landed at the Dayanandaji's ashram(Saylorsburg or somewhere else, Im not sure) to eventually become the in- house guru and now after some decades went on to become an important member of the Pitham or foundation.

Eastern Mind
01 August 2013, 08:00 PM
Namaste Vijaya

I WILL BE TRAVELING TO PENN STATE LATER IN AUGUST, I will fly into PIT airport, then on to a town about 25 miles from Pittsburg...

Where is this temple located? Is it near Pittsburg?

Any nice temples to visit there ?

Om Namah Sivaya

Vannakkam: The Arsha Vidya Gurukkullam is a fair drive from Pittsburgh, but Venkateshwara's temple there is awesome. I strongly encourage you to go. Boss and I have been to both a few years back. Pittsburgh itself is a beautiful city and the temple is out in Penn Hills but that's only a half hour drive or less. We went in the morning of a weekday, and it wasn't busy at all. The priest guessed our affiliation right away. We entered just as he was doing the Ganesha puja at the entrance to the main hall.

AVG is a bit trickier to find the temple as it's just part of the ashram, but anyone can direct you to it. It's more of a shrine than a temple. We drove right on by the first time past on the interstate, but I was determined so finally found the right road off. It was right at lunchtime, luckily for us.

Aum Namasivaya

ShivaFan
01 August 2013, 09:38 PM
Namaste and Thank you all for info on Temples in that area, I will definetly make effort to visit and then post pictures (if they are allowed, typically my temples of Muruga or Shiva do not allow pictures). Thank you!

Om Namah Sivaya

Anima Deorum
21 August 2013, 02:27 PM
Namaste

These are very nice murtis. Thank you for sharing them with us.