MTS Celebrates 35th Anniversary as “Founders’ Day”

Past and present board members of MTS attend the Founder’s Day luncheon.

Past and present board members of MTS attend the Founder’s Day luncheon.

PEARLAND: Thirty five years ago Sri Meenakshi Temple Society was formed and its humble beginning was marked by the installation of its first deity, Prasanna Vinayakar, at the northwest corner of the current temple complex.  The founders could not have imagined that only three years later, a huge main temple with three presiding deities came to be inaugurated  – Goddess Meenakshi at the center, Her consort Sundareshwarar to her right and Her brother Venkateshwarar to her left.  It is befitting that each year, in the month of July, the board of directors celebrated the temple anniversary.  This year the anniversary was celebrated on Sunday, July 8.

This year, the Chairman Tupil Narasiman and the board of directors deemed this day “Founders’ Day” and took this celebration up a notch by inviting the founders and the past board of directors in honor of their dedicated service to the temple society.  Close to a hundred members of the temple board, past and present, attended the celebration.

The event started with “Navakalasa Sthapanam” wherein a navakalasam (9 pots of water) for each of the three presiding deities was set up and mantras chanted along with homams to electrify the waters in the kalasams which were eventually poured over the main deities; the bathed deities were decorated with new vastrams and flowers and ornaments and a maha arathi and archanai were performed.

The main temple wore a festive look with ladies making flower garlands for the deities and the fire of the homams creating a meditative ambience.  The atmosphere was charged with energy from the Rudram chanting during the homam.  The pooja events were organized by MTS board directors M. Sriram and C. Karunaker.

The Honorable Mayor of Pearland, Tom Reid, who has been associated with the temple almost from its inception and seen the phenomenal growth of the temple, was one of the invited guests for the event. The Mayor issued a proclamation from the City of Pearland marking this day, July 8, as the Sri Meenakshi Temple Anniversary Day.  The Mayor acknowledged the services of the past board of directors and congratulated the past and present board for their dedicated service to the temple.

 The congregation witnessed the special puja until 12.30 pm and after receiving the prasadam moved to the Youth center for a special “Founders’ Day Luncheon.  One of the dignitaries present was one of the founders of MTS, Dr. Sudarshan, a well-known physicist from the University of Texas, and, in 2007, a recipient of Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award from the Government of India.  The past board of directors were greeted by the current board and were served lunch – sit down style organized by director Malar Narayanan – a nice way to thank the past board of directors for their contributions to the growth of this great institution – Sri Meenakshi Temple Society.  It is hoped that the Founders’ Day tradition will continue to bring together all those who worked hard to grow this temple.