Believer
20 June 2014, 02:20 AM
Namaste,
Just visited the northernmost Ganesha temple in the world in Anchorage, Alaska. The inspiration to visit it and the credit for looking it up goes to EM. Thanks EM.
This temple was started by one Mr. Neil Bhargava in a building in the business part of the town. I showed up there as per the google search address, only to find that the address was non-existent. An inquiry from a couple of people in a parking lot revealed that the temple had been moved about three years ago, and Mr. Bhargava worked in a nearby office. I was escorted to his office and we talked about my desire to see the temple and pay my respects to the deities. He apologized for not having the temple website updated for the address change and offered to open the temple when it was convenient for us to visit.
As the new location was close to the airport, I called him later when we left the hotel to go to the airport to take a flight out of Anchorage. We got to the mandir and paid our respects to the elegantly beautiful deities of Ganesh, Ram, Laxman, Sita, Hanuman, and Shakti. During our conversation I found out that some 40 odd Indian inhabitants of Anchorage had raised enough money to buy this property and had it modified to give it a somewhat temple like appearance. The mandir has no pujari and it is open only on Sundays, in the middle of the day for puja, bhajans and prasad. I felt very fortunate to have found Mr. Bhargava, him offering to take time off from work to go open the temple for us, and for having been able to visit with the deities. Lord Ganesh had removed all obstacles and made it possible for us to visit Him. Truly a remarkable experience!
The new mandir address, if anyone happens to go that way is 4025 Raspberry Lane, Anchorage. And as I mentioned before, it is open only on Sundays in the middle part of the day.
Pranam.
Just visited the northernmost Ganesha temple in the world in Anchorage, Alaska. The inspiration to visit it and the credit for looking it up goes to EM. Thanks EM.
This temple was started by one Mr. Neil Bhargava in a building in the business part of the town. I showed up there as per the google search address, only to find that the address was non-existent. An inquiry from a couple of people in a parking lot revealed that the temple had been moved about three years ago, and Mr. Bhargava worked in a nearby office. I was escorted to his office and we talked about my desire to see the temple and pay my respects to the deities. He apologized for not having the temple website updated for the address change and offered to open the temple when it was convenient for us to visit.
As the new location was close to the airport, I called him later when we left the hotel to go to the airport to take a flight out of Anchorage. We got to the mandir and paid our respects to the elegantly beautiful deities of Ganesh, Ram, Laxman, Sita, Hanuman, and Shakti. During our conversation I found out that some 40 odd Indian inhabitants of Anchorage had raised enough money to buy this property and had it modified to give it a somewhat temple like appearance. The mandir has no pujari and it is open only on Sundays, in the middle of the day for puja, bhajans and prasad. I felt very fortunate to have found Mr. Bhargava, him offering to take time off from work to go open the temple for us, and for having been able to visit with the deities. Lord Ganesh had removed all obstacles and made it possible for us to visit Him. Truly a remarkable experience!
The new mandir address, if anyone happens to go that way is 4025 Raspberry Lane, Anchorage. And as I mentioned before, it is open only on Sundays in the middle part of the day.
Pranam.