Background
Ethnic Indians � of which a vast majority were Hindu by religious
affiliation, starting coming to North America in large numbers
starting in the 1960s and more so from the 1980s onward. These
people came to the United States and Canada primarily for economic
opportunity and not in order to spread Hinduism (Sanathana Dharma).
During these past 30-40 years, Hindu-Americans have spent a great
deal of money building temples. Today we have nearly 1,000 temples
in North America � many small, most modest and some are quite large,
extravagant multi-million dollar estates.
These have been built by the original immigrants to North America
from India and other regions where Hindus reside (Asia, Africa and
Caribbean). These people represent Generation One. They often bring
their small children to the temple in the hopes that these children
will develop a temple-going habit, but once these children become
teenagers, they develop their own interests and busy schedule. They
represent Generation Two. Given that this generation is not
continuing in the temple-going lifestyle of their parents, what will
happen when these children grow up and raise their children
(Generation Three)? How many Hindus will be temple-going? How many
will spend money to build temples? Maintain temples? Sponsor
religious activities? Sponsor Hindu educational activities? Sponsor
community outreach programs that help others while promoting a
positive, progressive face for Dharma? How many of these coming
generations will even be Hindu?
Perhaps the reality is that Hinduism today is a weak religion that
tends to be subsumed by whatever other religion is in its proximity
(usually Christianity and Islam). Followers of these religions tend
to not only hold onto their beliefs generation to generation but also
work tirelessly to spread their religion. They believe that their
religion is wonderful and that the world would be a better place if
everyone followed it and therefore they work hard to spread their
religions systems to every nation on Earth. Hindus, on the other
hand, are either ashamed of their Dharma or are proud of it, but only
in private ("closet Hindus"). How can Generation One promote their
Dharma to the world if they cannot successfully propagate their
Dharma to their children (Generation Two)? And what will the future
look like going out many generations � two, three, four, � all the
way to Generation "N" (Nth generation or Next generation)? Given
current trends, the future is very uncertain and potentially bleak.
I believe we, as a global Dharmic community, need to look in the
mirror hard and ask ourselves � what type of planet do we want to
leave for our grandchildren? If we believe the world would be a
better place being more Dharmic and less Christian and Muslim, than
hoping will not make that so. We will need to take action and the
center-piece of those efforts will likely be temples. If change does
not occur, than it is very likely that many of these temples will be
abandoned in the next generation. The entire inheritance will be
squandered and these "ghost temples" will eventually be sold off (at
a huge loss no doubt) to be refashioned as churches or mosques.
The Importance of Temples
Temples in India have a history going back thousands of years. In
many cases they were created by kings to reflect their wealth and
power and were often dedicated to one or more deities (forms of
God). Outside of India and probably increasingly in India, the
purpose of a temple is changing.
Today its primary value is not as a place of worship and/or
meditation (since that can be done at home too), but as a community
center with a spiritual foundation. Since the future of Sanathana
Dharma revolves around temples and will continue to do so in the
future, it is important for temples to be open-minded about change so
that they may continue to meet the Dharmic congregation’s needs. If
however they rigidly hold onto outdated concepts of what a temple
should be and what priests should do, they will find their devotee
numbers dwindling until their temple eventually is forced to shut its
doors or be converted to a church or mosque.
"There are no formal schools for Hindu culture. Now some Hindu
temples in the US have started outreach programs. They have
incorporated classical dance, sitar and tabla classes, along with
yoga, Vedic traditions and language for their congregations. In the
US there are more than 800 temples, small and large�" (Source:
Hinduism Today magazine, July/August/September 2006 edition)
Temples have POWER � we should cultivate that power and expand it. A
child cannot grow tall and strong without good food and plenty of
activity. Likewise a temple cannot grow without constant community
sponsorship � not only to create the physical building
(the "Hardware") but also to develop the people and systems that are
self-promoting (the "software"). I find it ironic that people who
have inherited the oldest spiritual system on Earth have not
recognized or implemented one of the key beliefs of that system �
namely that our body is not us and that our soul is the real us.
Likewise, our temple is not just the physical building (body) but
actually the people who are associated with and in that temple (its
soul). Therefore, what is needed is a plan for all North American
Hindu Temples to create TEFs (Temple Endowment Funds) which must be a
permanent part of temple budgets and be funded at a minimum of 5 to
10% of the total budget. The key attribute of these endowments is
not their gross funds since many temples may have such funds today,
but rather where those funds are spent. The direction of spending
will have as large an impact on the future of global Dharma as the
amount of spending.
Challenges
In today’s global economy, nations and becoming increasingly
interconnected and the pace of life is speeding up. People have less
and less time for activities outside of work, family and essential
home upkeep. That shrinking time budget means less time for
vacation, hobbies and, for many people, less time for Dharma. Temple
activities are `optional’ for most Hindus and attendance outside of a
few annual events is not a high priority. Donating a portion of
wealth for temple development is also a very low priority. In most
cases of temple construction in North America, a few wealthy Hindus
donate large amounts of money to build a temple. They are often
surrounded by a small click of temple enthusiasts. These enthusiasts
may be able to keep the temple doors open for some time, but if a
larger section of the Hindu public is not integrated into the temple
community, the temple will eventually run into trouble. It is not
uncommon for a few wealthy Hindus to build a temple with the
expectation of perhaps 50 to 100 weekly satsang attendees only to
have real numbers less than 20. In addition, those 20 may not donate
much money. Either the temple will need to request more money
constantly from the wider community, or they will someday "go out of
business". In addition, when the larger local community wants to
have an inter-faith event, they may find it hard to get any
representatives from the Hindu community because the few people
involved are already stretched too thin. A summary of some current
problems that many Hindu temples faces could include the following:
� low attendance
� lack of involvement of 2nd gen or beyond
� finding and paying priests
� training of priests for North American needs
� need for more formalized education for youth
� need for much more inter-temple communication in N. America
and globally (need for more formalized leadership – national/global
organizations, financial coordination, legal coordination, apex body
to aggregate political power nationally/globally, etc.)
� lack of sponsorship of community and academia
� language issues (many adults do not understand Sanskrit and
many 2nd gen Hindus also are somewhat weak at Hindi, so long sessions
of bhajans or mantras are meaningless and will scare away many
potential temple visitors)
� service composition (liturgy is how long, how much time spent
on bhajan, how much bauddhik, how much time spent on
local/national/global Hindu issues discussion, [for example, if a few
dozen Hindus are murdered by Islamic militants in Kashmir, or by
Christian militants in Northeastern India, is that even mentioned in
the temple? And yet if there is an earthquake or tsunami, those
events may be discussed� In other words, are political issues related
to Hindu Dharma considered too "sensitive" to discuss?)
� professional, corporate management (minimizing personal egos
and feuds)
� need to offer more services (child care, elderly
housing/care, education, couseling, etc.)
� better coordination needed with local community (there should
be no competition for the youth – pitting India Community Centers
against Hindu Temples…)
� need for funds to maintain temples (often large funds raised
to build and then sponsorship wanes until there is a lack of funds
for maintenance and/or other activities)
Opportunities
The very nature of the changing global society can actually end up
being Dharma’s greatest advantage. If the world is getting more
educated, more informed, and busier, don’t they have a greater need
for a sophisticated spiritual system that is based on science and not
blind dogma? Don’t they need a spiritual system that is flexible and
ever-changing (versus frozen in time based upon a closed canon;
religious book)? Don’t they need a spiritual system that can help
them cope and even prosper in this new hectic lifestyle and teach
them more intelligent ways of diet, exercise and stress-reduction?
The answer is yes, and the answer is Dharma. The need therefore is
to "market" Dharma as the catch-all category that includes yoga,
meditation, ayurveda, science, etc. in a way that is appealing to
people around the world. And the "command-central" of that public
relations and knowledge dissemination process can be temples. These
new "21st century" temples may look and act very different from the
temples of yore � and the core financial engine of all this activity
can be these TEFs (Temple Endowment Funds). They can start out small
and over time expand out to the wider community with a plethora
of "sticky" services. Some of the new temple attributes (provided in
large part by the TEFs) can be:
� changing the composition of weekly temple services/liturgy
� create 2nd gen leadership
� more community outreach programs
� provide more services
� better coordination with local India Associations (and other
non-religious organizations)
� Generation Next ("N") needs to take the baton of leadership
from Generation One and transform the temples of today into Centers
of Dharmic Excellence
� HSC/Net-Ohm sponsorship of a different temple each year�
� Have one Acharya (teacher) at each temple along with one or
more priests; the acarya’s sole mission is to educate others
(priests, adults, children, general Hindu and non-Hindu public, etc.)
and to constantly network with other acharyas throughout the world to
exchange ideas and document those ideas
� Make temples the center of Samskara (sacraments; life-stage
ceremonies) versus the home
� education of youth/adults/elderly
� community outreach and development
� academic sponsorship (related to dharma and gen’l
scholarships for youth)
� legal fund
� public relations
� marketing of temple and Dharma in general (the general
marketing budget may be small and donated to a central firm for North
America which uses the money to create ads in different media to
generate awareness and good feelings about Dharma and India)
� national temple coordination/management
Ideas from Others
There are many services that synagogues, churches and mosques around
the world provide that Hindus can learn from and incorporate into new
temple models. We need to have people dedicated full-time to
studying how other religions manage their religious institutions:
Jews, Christians, Muslims and others:
 Day care
 Sponsorship of international poor or refugees
 Welfare services
 Job-training
 After-school classes /college prep
 Community service (Seva) opportunities for youth looking to
improve their resume’s for college
 issues with temple property management
 playground for children
 sports facilities (tennis, basketball, baseball/cricket
field, swimming, etc.)
 regular adult educational satsangs (medical, financial
planning, career development, lawyer, etc.)
 family management education (marriage, parenting, care of
elderly, etc.)
 get children involved in activity (versus just sitting
there) � in Sikh Gurudvaras, the children are in charge of one given
ceremony once a month� the same can be done with temples
 need to have a North American Temple Organization (such as
potentially: http://www.councilofhindutemples.org/index.html)
 Accumulation of Funds (in same way Catholic Church, Waqf,
etc. do)
 this N.American temple org can manage the Bauddhik Manual and
constantly train and re-train the priest about that�
 don’t rely solely upon parents, because they may often not
know answers to satisfy their children and/or are too busy to teach
their children about Dharma
 what do you do if everyone is against you? Where do you
turn? A temple could be that place if it is set up properly
In addition to all the plethora of services that temples can provide,
a few basics should not also be forgotten. Temples need to be
conveniently located, if they are 1 or more hours away from the Hindu
population, there should be no surprise when attendance is low. The
temple must coordinate on a weekly basis to make sure there are no
schedule conflicts with the local India Association/Community
Center. In our area outside of Boston, this is one of the main
reasons why families cannot attend a local temple, because the local
India Center operates its `Sunday School’ at the exact same time as
the temple has weekly Puja. This also makes it difficult to start
any type of Hindi, cultural or religious classes on Sundays when
children are at the India Center versus already being at the temple.
The temple must understand the needs of its diverse audience.
Children do not have the same interests or attention span of adults
and will not want to visit the temple if the normal puja service is
more than say 45 minutes. There should be alternate activities for
children while the adults are doing their service. In addition, the
children should have the opportunity to participate in activities
versus only sitting and listening to lectures or mantras.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, this comes down to planning, active management
and money. People are very busy these days with work, school and
other activities and this is in general a good thing. We need to
understand this and raise enough money to be able to sponsor people
who can dedicate their full-time efforts to the organization,
management and propagation of Dharma. This cannot be done by the
general Hindu public on our spare time. There is simply not enough
spare time to do an adequate job. We need to train a new generation
of Dharmic experts and professionals (priests, acharyas, professors,
activists, leaders, public-speakers, attorneys, marketers,
politicians, etc.). The task is very tall, but we are a smart bunch
of people and we can do it. Furthermore, members of other religions
have had the same challenges and have met those with success. So
let’s start � now.
