Samarpan Hindu Samaj Temple of Minnesota President’s Note January 1st, 2011 spiritual needs, as well as cele- those of you interested in spreading brate all major festivals in the the word regarding non-Temple Dear Community Members, Temple. The Temple is open at related events, please send your Namaste! fixed hours as noted on the web- emails to the ‘ROCIndians Yahoo site. We request patrons to avoid, Group’. And now, you can adver- New Year Greetings to You and as best as possible, requesting tise on Samarpan as well, the Your Family for a Very Happy, priest services for personal pujas ground rules for which will soon be Prosperous and Healthy 2011! during Temple hours. decided upon! We request your Volume 1, Issue 1 understanding. I am very happy to see the re- The Temple is strongly committed launch of Samarpan, the Hindu to supporting cultural activities. And finally, I would like to update January, 2011 Samaj Temple & Cultural Cen- This includes providing space for you on our search for land for ter’s newsletter. Those of you, language, dance and cultural building a new Temple. As the next who have been in Rochester long classes; organizing Holi and step, we organized a town hall Special points of interest: enough, might remember that Deepavali cultural programs in a meeting of the community mem- • Prathistaapana Samarpan was produced a few big way and supporting visiting bers on December 18th at the Tem- years ago for a short while. Now artistes to perform in Rochester. ple. The meeting began with a talk • What is Hinduism? with the backing of an enthusias- by Prof. Rambachan, Head of Reli- Samarpan is likely to benefit not • Shishu’s column tic editorial and technical team, gious Studies at St Olaf College, on only the Temple, but also many of Samarpan is back! The purpose Lord Krishna’s interpretation of • Quiz you who are doing a great job of launching Samarpan is to “Daanam” or “Saathwik Giving”. through individual efforts, to pro- • Priest Harikrishna facilitate the accomplishment of At the meeting a vision for reach- mote arts and culture in our com- the Temple and Cultural Center’s ing our goal of building a new • Significance of Samarpan munity. The annual Diwali night stated threefold goals: a) To en- Temple was presented. A brief organized by Dr Sandhya Pruthi, • Ragamala hance knowledge of Hindu relig- overview of land parcels available Dr Neelam Dhiman and Sunita ion and Indian culture. b) To for purchase was also provided. • Bal Vikas Nayar is an example of this. Re- make the practice of Hindu relig- The next step is to meet with cently Toshj-ji organized SaRe- ion and culture accessible to all smaller groups in the coming GaMaPa cultural program. Swara- in the community. c) To advance weeks to continue this dialog and laya, an organization devoted to the appreciation of Indian culture raise funds for the new Temple. We the arts, launched by Shri Anantha in the larger community. We hope, with your support and en- Inside this issue: Kollengode, is yet another exam- thank the team for taking up this couragement, we will be able to important initiative, and wish ple of these efforts. The Temple buy land in the next few months. Editors Note 2 them and the newsletter, the Very strongly supports and encourages Best! these efforts. All this progress cannot happen without your support: physical, Many of you have requested that What is Hinduism? 3 The coming year promises to be intellectual and financial. We truly these events be disseminated an exciting one for the Temple. appreciate your active participa- through the Temple email. Unfor- We look forward to greater and tion. expanded religious and cultural tunately we can't use the distribu- Shishu’s contribution 3 activities and most importantly, tion list for events that aren’t or- My regards and Best Wishes for the prospect of buying land for ganized or co-sponsored by the the New Year. Temple. Otherwise, we will have Prathistaapana 4 building a formal Hindu Temple! Sincerely, to honor all such requests and we With Priest Harikrishna-ji joining do not have the resources to do so. Suresh Chari us in the last quarter of 2010, our Priest’s almanac 5 For this purpose alone, members President, Hindu Samaj Temple religious activities have received of the Temple Board created the a significant boost. In the coming ‘ROCIndians Yahoo Group’. We year, we hope to enhance the Significance of “Samarpan” 6 encourage all our patrons to join religious services we provide; both these email lists, so we can with the goal to cater to every- distribute information regarding Food for Thought 7 one’s personal religious and or non-Temple related events. For Volume 1, Issue 1 Page 2 Editor’s Note Samarpan relaunched! monthly calendar of temple and temple- wealth of knowledge, wisdom and talent in sponsored events will be published in the our community that we want to tap into to Happy New Year and Welcome to the first issue newsletter. benefit the future Indian society here in North of Samarpan! America - namely, our children. This There are many different groups and classes We are pleased to announce the re-launch of monthly newsletter can be sustained only that meet at the temple on a weekly or monthly Samarpan, the monthly on-line newsletter of the through your continued support. basis – some of them are: the Balagokulam Hindu Samaj Temple. The newsletter hopes to group, the Sai group, the Yoga class, the serve as a forum; to bring you closer to the In- Meaning of Samarpan Telegu school and the Bharatanatyam class. dian community with the exchange of ideas, “Samarpan” is a Sanskrit word, which means Contributions highlighting activities of each of energy and information related to Hinduism and “to surrender”. Let us make a commitment to these groups are welcome and we will make Indian culture. Currently the Temple uses an e- surrender ourselves to spread religious, spiri- every effort to include them in our newsletters. mail distribution list and their website for dis- tual and cultural enrichment! seminating information to the community. How- We plan to have multiple sections in the news- With Best Wishes from the Samarpan Edito- ever, Samarpan hopes to be a platform to display letter. There will be a Children’s section con- rial Board. talents and share accomplishments from mem- taining stories, quizzes or other significant bers of our community, including Children’s write ups, along with a Priest’s corner that will activities with stories and photos. describe the significance of upcoming reli- gious events. We hope to add new sections to Samarpan Content the newsletter as the year progresses. With In each issue of Samarpan, we plan to share up- the rich heritage and diverse traditions of In- coming events at the temple, as well as provide a dia, we invite you, both adults and children, to recap of the events that have taken place. A contribute articles to the newsletter. There is a From Our Cultural Desk : Ragamala Shyamala Bhat WeCultural News were thrilled and privileged to have Raga- The audience was held spell-bound to their mala Dance Theater come to town on Nov 21st seats for 90 minutes as the story unfolded in 2010. After a full year of planning, their dance- front of them. The dance form, costumes, mu- drama, “Sthree” (Woman) was staged at the sic and English narration made the evening a Rochester Technical Community College’s Hill perfect blend of art, aesthetics and entertain- Theatre. ment. Annu Luthra who attended the event says “The performance of Ragamala was “Sthree” is inspired by the ancient Tamil classic beautifully choreographed and narrated. The “Silappathikaram” (The Anklet) written in poetry fact that it was in English made it understood by a Jain monk IIlango Adigal. Set in the temple by people from myriad backgrounds, making it town of Madurai in the Sangam Era (300 B.C.E very entertaining”. Indeed! Thank you Annu to 300 C.E), the dance-drama is the story of Kan- and all of you who braved the rain and early nagi and her beau Kovalan. When Kovalan is winter to attend the show! Samarpan Editorial Board charged with stealing and is wrongfully exe- cuted, Kannagi stands before the might of the We, the Hindu Samaj Temple, would like to Anantha Santhanam Pandya kingdom to demand justice. Her fierce thank Ragamala, RCTC and all volunteers love and loyalty for her slain husband and her who contributed their time and effort to mak- Rajani Sohni difficult path to justice tells an enduring tale of ing this a reality. It is sincere wish that such human failings and strengths. It is also an illus- works of cultural beauty become a regular Shyamala Bhat tration of the Hindu principles of “Karma” and feature in Rochester. We hope to have Raga- “Dharma” that have formed the backbone of our mala back every year! We would also very Surya Ghatty civilization. The dance has an original score by grateful to Ragamala for donating proceeds of famous violinist Dr. L. Subramanian and is the show to the temple. Post-bulletin was also Neeta Pai scripted for stage by a local Minnesotan play- kind enough to meet Ranee Ramaswamy for Nisha Unni wright Zarawaar Mistry. The activity was funded an interview and publicise the event in their th in part by a grant from the National Endowment newspaper of November 18 . Unnikrishnan for the Arts and by the Minnesota Arts and Cul- For those who could not attend and would like tural Heritage fund.