In spite of Challenging Weather Hundreds of Devotees Attend the Annual Event of Mata Ji Ki Chowki at Hindu Worship Society!
By Nisha Bhatia, Pramod Sharma & Manish Khatri
HOUSTON: Hindu Worship Society, Houston’s oldest temple, started off the New Year by hosting its annual Mata Chowki held on January 1, 2018. This Chowki brought many devotees out to the temple seeking Mata Rani’s blessings for a great and prosperous New Year.
The function was about giving kick start to a superb year by worshiping the Goddess of Supremacy, for peace, harmony, health and wealth to all and specific to those and their loved ones who took time out and joined this worship. It is truly believed and experienced that MATA is very kind and rains the blessing, fullfil desired feats of its worshippers
Patrons and sponsors at the Puja; Jaya Sharma, Rakesh Kapoor and Narin Sehgal
The occasion was very auspicious. It was celebrated by the mandir devotees, who sang Bhajans, Bhents, and performed prayers to the Goddess.Mata Rani’s bhents were led by long-time devotees Sheel and Balram Thakral along with our own Pandit Ji’s children, Rishabh and Ruchi all coming together as a great community in Mata Ji’s devotion. Several community members commented that they were delighted to note an increased participation by devotees offering Bhents. Few of the devotees very respectfully agreed to fore go their offerings of Bhents so that the program can be completed on schedule.
Section of Devotees offering Mata Ji Bhents
Those who attended saw the mandir beautifully decorated by the youth of the mandir. These kids volunteered there and spent several hours cleaning and decorating for the event. It is of one the goals of Hindu Worship Society’s new Board of Trustees and Executive Committee to get more youth involvement into the mandir. These kids did an amazing job to start off the New Year!
Devotees also saw a new office in place where they could get hosting and sponsoring information, general membership sign-up, posters of Bhagvan Ji and Mata Rani and Hindu Worship Society calendars.
HWS Youth Decorators: Akshit Lashkari, Riya Patel, Nehal Barnwal, Priyanshu Barnwal and Ritvik Lashkari
This event could not be possible without all the contributing Patrons and Sponsors. HWS will like to thank the following Grand Patrons , Grand Sponsors and Sponsors along with their families :
Grand Patrons:
Rita and Bal Sareen, Diana and Narin Sehgal
Grand Sponsors and Sponsors:
Kirti and Devki Agarwal , Saroj and Vishwa Bahl , Vanita and Vijay Bhagi , Kiran and Ramesh Garg , Aruna and Ravi Goel , Radha and Ram Gupta , Sudhesh and Bhisham Guptay, Neena and Rakesh Kapoor , Manju and Madan Mangal , Surita and Satish Malhota, Shakun Parti , Rama and Navin Patni, Vijay and Suresh Sachdev , Poonam and Raj Sehgal , Dipi and Raj Sethi , Jaya and Prabhat Sharma , Vimla and Pramod Sharma , Meera and Rajinder Soni, Dr.Arun and Vinne Verma of the Sita Ram Foundation.
And a big thank you goes out to Bombay Brasserie for catering the “ Satvik “ dinner prashad for over 400 devotees.
Hindu Worship Society would like to continue doing such events for the Houston community, which without the support of such sponsors may not be possible. Hindu Worship Society invites all the existing General Members to renew their annual membership and invites fellow community members and devotees to become new General Members with an annual donation of $101.
HWS Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee is working very hard to make positive changes at the Mandir. Devotees can see the progress on Hindu Worship Society’s new website: www.hwstemple.org and on their new Facebook page @hwstemple.
Hindu Worship Society is very proud of our strong and participating community and all the volunteers who help our events happen, like this Mata Chowki a grand success! Please visit the mandir to see the exciting progress! Happy New Year and Jai Mata Di!