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Columbia's Hindu Temple COLUMBIA, MO (KBIA) - Shanti Mandir is Columbia's only Hindu Temple. It's a place where members of the Indian community come together to share a diverse culture.

Saturday mornings mark an important weekly event for Shanti Mandir, Columbia's only Hindu Temple. Hindu devotees from diverse parts of India meet together for a ceremony called Suprabhatham Prayer. Worshipers sing chants dedicated to a form of the Hindu deity Vishnu. But at Shanti Mandir there's one big difference. In contrast to India, where regional sects and cults often focus on specific deities more than others, Shanti Mandir brings together the entire Indian community.

Anantha Gopalaratham is a temple member who helps organize events and prayers. She says she sees the temple ceremonies as an important way to offer Hindus the opportunity to worship as a community.

"The whole idea is that you can seek god in your own home, but we believe there is a special power that comes from worshiping together and that is what a temple hopes to accomplish."

Temple members come from a variety of places and speak a variety of languages. Balaji is a congregation member from the Southern part of India. In his region worship tends to focus on Hindu gods Vishnu and Siva, but Balaji accepts Shanti Mandir's more general theological focus. He says he believes everyone from the Indian community should be accepted and included.

"This temple is full of all cultures that are present in India, which we cannot see any part within in India, because that part is specific to only one region, whereas here we have the feeling we are in a big country, all of the religions are being followed here, so that's a good advantage for all of us."

Shanti Mandir is not just for adults. The temple's weekly language classes attract young people as well. There's a reason for this. Gopalaratnam says her hope is the temple will serve to pass on a common culture to the children of Columbia's diverse Indian community.

"Despite all our difference there is one underlying culture which is kind of common to all of us and that is what we would like to pass on to our children, and we feel that is very important because it nice for our children to have a kind of network."


Adithi Vellore is Gopalaratnam's daughter and a sophomore at Hickman High School. Vellore says that not only does worship become more generalized for Indians in Mid-Missouri, but she has seen Hindu customs become more general as traditions in her family are passed down from older to younger generations. Vellore says she focuses on the basic values of Hinduism and less on specific deities and practices.

"I've noticed that my grandparents would seem to be little more strict about observing certain things, and my parents are more strict about observing certain practices than myself and my sister are."

Temple member Balaji said he sees the Indian community in Columbia as a big family, and Shanti Mandir is the place where this extended Indian family can come together to interact and worship.
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