The Bliss of Char Dham

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Photos: Jayanta Bandyopadhyay

THE WOODLANDS: Saturday, January 23, was very special. Devotees from Houston and surrounding areas as well as out of town came down to the Woodlands to participate in the special Prayer and Brick ceremony for the Char Dham Hindu temple. The ceremony was held at the temple site, 8044 College Park Drive, The Woodlands, TX. Char Dham are the names of four pilgrimage sites in India that are widely revered by Hindus. It comprises of Badrinath in the North, Dwarka in the West, Puri (Jagannath) in the East and Rameswaram in the South.  Char Dham Hindu Temple in the Woodlands is probably the only one of its kind in the world with all four temples at the same place, one for each Dham.

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Devotees showed up early in the morning with each family taking their place at designated spots. All the Puja Samagree and four bricks, one for each Dham were already placed at each spot. The Puja was conducted by the head priest of Char Dham, Pandit Srikiran Narayanam with the help of four other priests. After the Puja was over, the participating families carried the bricks to the designated construction site for each temple and placed one brick at each site. The bricks will be used in the construction of the four temples. This was followed by a specially catered lunch.

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We are very fortunate that Dr. Surya Sahoo and Kabita Sahoo of SKAI Foundation chose The Woodlands as the temple site giving devotees all over USA, a chance to visit all four Dhams in our lifetime. As noted by Partha Krishnaswamy, President of Hindus of Greater Houston, very few people are fortunate enough to have visited one of the Dhams, let alone all four Dhams. But when the Char Dham Temple construction is complete, devotees can visit the Char Dham just by visiting the temple site and taking blessings from Jagannath Dham, Rameswaram Dham, Dwarkanath Dham and Badrinath Dham.

Please visit skaifoundation.org to see updates on temple construction and other events held by the Char Dham temple.