Mandir Vani Hindu Temple and Cultural Center of the Rockies 7201 S. Potomac St. Centennial, CO 80112 (Tax ID: 84-1301209) Acharya ji Shiva Kumar Mishra 201-640-2257 Pundit ji Deepak Raghunath 201-887-5034 www.hindutempleofcolorado.org 303-858-9927 email: [email protected] The mission of the Hindu Temple and Cultural Center of the Rockies (HTCC) is to provide a forum for religious worship and celebrations, and for cultural, religious, and spiritual develop- ment activities based on Hindu / Vedic / Sanatan - Dharma traditions. Editorial Board Reva Nayar (President) Prabhakara Rao (Editor) Mahesh Jha (Interim President) Ganesha Chaturthi Celebration at Hindu Temple Volume 21 No. 3 1 December 2017 Mandir Vani Page 1 Interim President’s Page Dear Devotees of Hindu Temple: Soon after the last issue of Mandir Vani was printed, Reva Ji decided to take a sabbatical leave as President till the 2017 year end and entrusted me with the duties of managing the HTCC business as Interim President. At a Special Board Meeting held on Sunday, July 30, 2017, the HTCC Board of Trustees ratified my appointment as Interim President. I want to thank the Board for giving me this opportunity to serve the temple, the community and through that, the God. I pray to God to give me courage to change what can be changed, the serenity to accept what cannot be changed, and the wisdom to know the difference. I want to take this opportunity to publicly thank Reva Ji and her husband, Inder Nayar Ji who over last eight years have devoted thousands of hours in planning, fund raising, and getting the beautiful temple designed and built. Before Reva Ji, I was the President for many years and know from personal experience how hard it is to raise funds. After assuming my new role on the Board, I have been working with the Board on planning and implementing initiatives that would help in better management and operation of the temple. I will highlight some of these initiatives below. The HTCC Articles of Incorporation and HTCC Bylaws were reviewed and updated by a com- mittee comprised of Dr. Nanda, Reva Nayar, Prabhakara Rao and Mahesh Jha. The Board ap- proved the amended Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws during September Board meeting. The amended Bylaws call for the Board of Trustees to have 15 members. Each year, five trus- tees will be elected for a three year term with the possibility of reelection for a second term. Out of the five trustees to be elected, three will be elected from nominations submitted by the cur- rent trustees. Other two will be elected from three nominations submitted to the Board by the Advisory Council. The Amended Bylaws also limit the term of the officers (President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer) to 2 years with the possibility of reelection for another 2- year term. The Amended Bylaws also allowed the formation of Advisory Council. See the separate article on this in Mandir Vani. For the first time, Hindu Temple organized two social evenings. The first was a Navaratri Ga- raba-Dandia dance social and the second was a Diwali Dhoom dance social. Both events were held in the open basement and included food as well dancing to the music played by DJs. Each event was attended by over 500 people. We plan to organize more such functions next year. The Temple is also planning to publish a 28-page color calendar for 2018. It will have photographs of the deities present in the temple. and will list all the poojas and celebrations taking place in the temple every day. I wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year. – Mahesh Jha ******************************* Volume 21 No.3 1 December 2017 Mandir Vani Page 2 Formation of Advisory Council Mahesh Jha For many years, the HTCC Bylaws have contained a provision for Advisory Council. Now that the organization has grown to the point where its assets are worth more than $5 million and net equity is over $3 million, the Board saw an urgent need for activating the Advisory Council. It was included in the Amended Bylaws approved by the Board during its September 24, 2017 meeting. The initial concept is that the Board will continue to manage the affairs of HTCC, as provided in Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws with Officers elected by the Board managing the day- to-day business and operations. And the Advisory Council, comprising of community members who have made large donations, will have a say in the management as well as give advice and guidance to the Board on financial and policy matters. It will also help with fund raising and special projects. Accordingly, about 50 potential members, in three categories of donors were invited to attend an initial meeting of Advisory Council at the temple on Sunday, October 15, 2017. This in- cluded 8 Legacy Donors who have donated more than $100,000 from 2006 (when the land was purchased for New Temple to 2016 (the last year for which we have the total donation record). The group also included 13 Sponsors with total donations of $25,000 to $99,999 from 2006 to 2016 and 26 Patrons with total donations of $10,000 to $24,999 for same time period. The meeting was attended by more than half the invitees. They positively supported the idea of Advisory Council and its potential role in helping the management of HTCC. Mr. Narender Kumar, CEO of engineering firm Kumar & Associates and a former HTCC VP of New Temple Project volunteered to be Convener of Advisory Council and will help develop the structure of the organization. The council will then discuss and decide other issues. Based on amended bylaws, the Board of Trustees which has the responsibility for the manage- ment of the organization, will elect five trustees every year for a three-year term. Out of these five 3 will be from candidates nominated by the current trustees and two will be from 3 nomina- tions submitted by the Advisory Council. The Advisory Council has already embarked on two initiatives. Dr. Murthy of Fort Collins has started a special fund totally focused on Mortgage Payment. Some members have already made a pledge and others are expected to join. The second initiative is to finish the kitchen. Mr. Nar- ender Kumar is leading this effort. The kitchen will get built sooner, if we have the funds, and everyone is requested to pitch in. Other donors are invited to join this elite group – the people uniquely blessed by God to have the desire and means for helping the community by building a beautiful temple as a gathering place for the community for decades to come. You can add to the donations you have already made over last ten years to become a patron, sponsor or even a legacy donor. If you are not sure of how much you have donated already, please contact Mahesh Jha, Interim President at [email protected] or Satish Kumar, Treasurer at [email protected] to find out. You can give your dona- Volume 21 No. 3 1 December 2017 Mandir Vani Page 3 tion by check payable to Hindu Temple and mailed to 7201 S. Potomac Street, Centennial , CO 80112 *************** Advisory Council Meeting Photo (15 Oct 2017) List of Advisory Council Members (As of Oct 2017) Legacy Donors (more than $100,000 total donation) 1. Chaman & Aruna Malhotra 2. Deepak & Jyotsna Malhotra 3. Inder & Madhu(late) Mathur 4. Lakshmi & Raj Mrig 5. Krishna & Ratna Murthy 6. Inder & Reva (Trustee) Nayar 7. M Srinivas & Shyama Reddy 8. Vishnu (late) & Eileen Saran Volume 21 No.3 1 December 2017 Mandir Vani Page 4 Sponsors ($25,000 to $99,999 total donation) 1. Ashutosh & Sreedevi Ashutosh 2. Deepak & Rita Bhasin 3. Arun (Trustee) & Janet Budhiraja 4. Kamalesh & Rita Dwivedi 5. Mahesh (Trustee) & Subhadra Jha 6. Narender & Camille Kumar 7. Shanthi & Rajanikanth Maddhi 8. Amiya & Rajlaxmi Mansingh 9. C.P. (Trustee) & Asha (late) Mishra 10. Kedar & Hiradevi Morarka 11. Ved (Trustee) & Katherine Nanda 12. Romesh & Ramesh Sharma 13. Asha Vasant (Trustee) Patrons ($10,000 to $24,999 total donation) 1. Rajesh (Trustee) & Chapla Agarwal 2. Pramod & Anita Agarwal 3. Dibyajyoti & Nilanjana Aichbhaumik 4. Niranjan & Padma Bookanakere 5. Mohan & Shobna Chidambaram 6. Sameer & Vandana Chopra 7. Jayaprakash Gnanam 8. Anand & Varsha Kumar 9. Satish (Sam) & Shashi Kumar 10. Satish Kumar (Trustee) 11. Sunil & Sujata Kumar 12. Ganesh & Roopashri Kurse 13. Anil Antal 14. Mohan & Shikha Mishra 15. Narinder & Kusum Mohan 16. Hemanta & Mita (Trustee) Mukherjee 17. Vasant & Asha Pawar 18. Anshuman & Bhargavi Purohit 19. Prabhakara (Trustee) & Revathi Rao 20. Kumar & Anuradha Rao Volume 21 No. 3 1 December 2017 Mandir Vani Page 5 21. Raghavendra & Padmini Sametanahalli 22. Bipendra K Sinha 23. Sridhar (Trustee) & Lakshmi Talanki 24. Shashi & Meera Tiwari 25. Krishna & Jaishree Vaidyanathan 26. Namapalli & Rekha Vijay **************** Celebrations at Temple – Mita Mukherjee Janmashtami —was celebrated on 15th of August at our Temple. Acharyaji performed Gita Path which was followed by a great cultural program; Children from our community performed a skit depicting the events around Lord Krishna’s birth. The story of how King Kamsa ordered the death of 7 children, born to his sister Devaki and how the 8 th child “Lord Krishna” was taken to safety by his father, Vasudev, was narrated and enacted by the children; The scene where all soldiers fell in a stupor and midst of thunder and lightning, Vasudev carried his child, to safety was very real! There were several dance performances, the opening dance by Anyanna Talanki, who has been performing for the temple since she was a little girl; Tina and Manali were great as well; Punditji had prepared a jhula with baby Krishna and we all took turns in pulling the jhula; Bha- jans were sung till midnight; All in all it was a great occasion and we paid homage to Lord Krishna with arati at midnight; Ganesh Chaturthi - Next event was Ganesh Chaturthi, organized by Kannada Koota, Ganesh puja by the children was a great success.