Where We Worship

LAST WEEKEND, big outdoor party tents brimming with Indian food, Indian music and dancing filled the parking lots and grounds at Bharatiya Temple on County Line Road near Willow Grove.

Families from across the region converged on the Hindu temple for the annual Philadelphia Ganesh Festival, honoring the popular elephant-headed deity Ganesha, who is said to remove life's obstacles.

The temple itself is a big tent, too - metaphorically speaking - for followers of the Hindu religion. As a "multi-deity" temple, the modern, 8,500-square-foot building houses shrines to a number of gods that are revered in different regions of India.

(Most temples serve Hindus with roots in one particular region.)

Its tent is so broad that members of the Jain religion, which is similar to Hinduism but has its own practices, also worship at Bharatiya.

"Our concept from the beginning was to unite the whole community," said temple president Nand Todi.

Who we are: Bharatiya Temple, founded in the late 1990s, has 600 member families. It attracts 1,000 to 1,500 worshippers for celebrations of Hindu festivals.

Where we worship: The building is at 1612 County Line Road in Montgomeryville. Worshippers place their shoes on a large rack in the first-floor lobby before walking upstairs to the second-floor temple space.

Inside the temple, freestanding shrines display icons of a dozen Hindu and Jain deities, including Lord Ganesha. Worshippers bow to pray outside the shrines, but only priests can enter them.

Bharatiya's four full-time priests all trained in India starting in their childhoods for the intellectual, philosophical and physical rigors of reading, interpreting and chanting Sanskrit.

"They can recite for hours and hours," Todi said.

What we believe: Hindus believe in one God, who is present in all things (including people). The various Hindu deities - scripture says there are 330 million of them - are all different forms of this one supreme being.

Different forms are popular in different parts of India, Todi said.

Hindus also believe in reincarnation and in karma - essentially, that what goes around comes around and that how you act determines your destiny.

They don't have a weekly temple worship service but instead attend for festivals that are scattered throughout the year - about 30 total. Worshippers also pray and perform daily rituals at home.

"It's not just a religion. It's a culture," Todi said. "It's how we practice."

Good works: One of the temple's noteworthy projects reaches out to members who have special needs, encompassing disabilities from Down syndrome to stroke to mood disorders. Members who provide specialized assistance include doctors and therapists.

God is . . . Everywhere. "Within yourself, there's a god," Todi said. When Hindus say "namaste" and fold their hands, he said, "We are going to that part within."

Big moral issues we grapple with: Keeping American-born children engaged with their culture and religion is one challenge.

Events like the Ganesh Festival help them connect with their roots, said Kinnari Desai, a mother of two from Allentown whose family travels from the Lehigh Valley to attend Bharatiya Temple. "They perform the rituals perfectly - to a 'T,' " she said.

Land of milk and honey and ghee: In a gala ritual called a Grand Maha Abhishek, a priest at the weekend festival bathed the temple's Ganesha statue in cascades of water, milk, honey, ghee (clarified butter) and a succession of other washes.

For the special occasion, the priests also hung garlands of colorful vegetables and flowers from the elephant god's neck.

Bollywood on County Line Road: Like large congregations from other faiths, Bharatiya offers a wide slate of classes, including Sunday school, cultural programs and even exercise classes.

A weekly Bollywood-style cardio and strength-training class starts next Saturday. Cookbook author Niti Sanghrajka co-hosts a vegetarian Thanksgiving cooking demo Nov. 13.