Gauri Siddhivinayak Temple Hosts the First Ever 84 Randal Mataji na Lota

By Vanshika Vipin

HOUSTON: For the first time in Houston, a 84 Randal Mataji na Lota and Jagran were hosted on a grand scale, at the Gauri Siddhivinayak Temple of Greater Houston. Ravi Randal Maa is a Hindu Goddess and Kuldevi, whose main temple is located in Dadva, Gujarat. She is thought to be the consort of the Sun Deity: Ravi/Surya and Randal Mataji is mainly worshipped by the Gujarati people of India. Randal Maa Na lota is a ceremony where people invite Goddess Ravi Randal to their homes during grand occasions such as weddings, baby showers, housewarmings, or simply for the joy and love for Randal Mataji.

This ceremony, performed on July 17, was attended by over 500 devotees who rejoiced through the night with ras garba and bhajans. The temple echoed with soul-soothing prayers, chantings of shlokas, and devotional songs. Devotees witnessed two hours of modern guitar-accompanied by Krishna Das-style bhajans played and sung by Ramnath Subramuniam, an American born musician, native of Alvin, Texas who has been a devotee of Devi and Shiva for 20 years.

The new board member of Gauri Siddhivinayak Temple, the western Hindu scholar and priest Srinath V. Mahadevan was also present at the temple. He was accompanied with his wife Jessica, a Houston native. Both of them are members of the Aradhya Srouta Saiva Sampradaya and disciple of Satguru Sivanandamurthy Garu and Sri Attaluri Mrtyunjaya Sharma Garu. Alongside the enchanting and soul-touching music, maha prasad was served to all devotees.

The credit for hosting this event goes to the main priest of Gauri Siddhivinayak Temple Houston, Pandit Pradip Pandya and his wife Puja. For the past 11 years the cheerful and generous Pandit has worked tirelessly for the Hindu community. The mission of this temple is to help people, ir-respective of their culture or financial status. The temple committee has been looking for a new land for a much larger facility, in order to facilitate programs at a larger scale. There are plans in place for multiple satsang groups for adults, youth education, weekly meditation and bhajan programs, and discourses by learned saints from across India.

  The temple plans to host programs in a variety of Indian languages, thereby representing the various traditions and interpretations of Hindu religion and standing up for ‘Ek Bharat’ or ‘One India’, regardless of sectarian and denominational division. At present the temple is laying the foundation stone to these planned activities, with the vision of being well connected and networked with other international non-profit humanitarian organizations, so as to reach the ultimate goal of helping orphans and the underprivileged.

Pandit Pradip Pandya, would like to thank Indo-American News, India Herald, Geetanjali Radio, Sulekha.com, and HumTumDesi.com who helped him to widen the reach of this event, to devotees across Houston and beyond.

The sponsors of this successful event were Yajaman Vipulbhai and Dipalbhen Kalani along with the Kalani family, as well as Dr. Deepak Kotecha and his wife Smitabhaen Kotecha in addition to Pushpabhaen and the Kotecha family.

The Gauri Siddhivinayak Temple is a 501 ( c ) Organization and all donations are tax deductible.
It is located on 5645 Hillcroft Avenue, Suite 701 Houston, TX 77036.
For further details call them at 832-466-9868