Untitled Document

New temple, new priest

Local Hindus' first leader arrives in time for worship center's debut

Spiritual leader: Sandip Shastri ji, the Vedmurti Sri, is Indianapolis' first full-time Hindu priest. He will lead ceremonies at the new Hindu temple on German Church Road. - DANESE KENON / The Star

About the new priest

• Sandip Shastri ji

• Pronunciation: San-dip sha-    sastree gee.

• Age: 30.

• Hometown: Pandharpur,   India.

• Family: Wife, Supriya. Son,    Krishna, 5, and daughter   Subhadra, 18 months.

• Education: At Hindu schools   in   Northern and Southern   India.

• Current employment:   Priest   of the Hindu Temple of   Central   Indiana.

• Note: He is the 14th   consecutive    generation in his   family to enter    the Hindu   priesthood.

• What it means to him to be   Hindu : "Hinduism means   living   a   spiritual life and a   cultural life.   Also, Hinduism   means being   attached to a   materialistic life   but   also   being detached from a   materialistic life. . . . That   means   enjoy your life. But   think   about   that when you go   from   this world   you are not   going to   take anything   with   you. So for   that, offer it to the   Lord."

• Why he marks his forehead    twice daily with   saffron or    sandalwood

  powder : To keep a calm head.

• How it is that Hindus worship   thousands of deities but   claim   only one God: Like a   single man   can be a father, a   son, a husband   and a worker, so   can God have the    many   personalities of the deities.

About the Temple's Inauguration

Part One

Purification of the new temple

• Saturday, Feb. 4, 8 a.m to   noon

• Hindu Temple, 3350 German   Church Road

Part Two

Puja (worship service) to prepare for the moving of the deity Sri Radha Krishna to its new home

• Saturday, Feb. 4, 5 p.m. to   7:30 p.m.

• India Community Center,   4420   W. 56th Street

Part Three

Puja for Sri Radha Krishna continued

• Sunday, 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

• India Community Center, 4420 W.    56th Street

Part Four

Introduction of deities to the new temple

• Sunday, 2:30 p.m. to 3:30   p.m.

• Hindu Temple, 3350 German   Church Road


	Local Hindus will have more to celebrate than the opening of their new temple next week. Their colorful rituals will be led by their very own priest -- the first full-time spiritual leader the Hindu community here has ever had.
	Since the first Hindus arrived here in the 1960s, they have had to find their own way spiritually. Individuals led weekly worship services as best they could. Priests from other states were sometimes brought in for special Hindu occasions.
	But all that changed last autumn when, in anticipation of the new temple's opening, community leaders hired their first full-time Hindu priest -- Sandip Shastri ji. Shastri ji was a student of Hinduism's equivalent of the pope. His studies in the various regions of India make him a natural fit for the diverse Indian community here.
	Dr. Girdhar Ahuja, a longtime member of the Hindu community, said the priest will fill a void that has long existed for local Hindus. "It is extremely important to do the ceremonies in the way they are written up in our scriptures," he said. "It will enrich our education, knowledge and culture."
	Shastri ji, 30, has been leading worship services, known as "pujas," at the India Community Center since his arrival.
	Sanctification ceremonies
	But his work will have added significance starting next weekend when the new temple opens. Shastri ji will lead two days of ceremonies to sanctify the 11,000-square foot building on the Far Eastside. That will prepare the temple to house the several deities to be given places of honor there.
	Six Hindu deities will be represented by metallic statues, some of which will weigh several hundred pounds. They will be installed in the temple after rituals that include fire worship, food offerings and a cow puja -- where a cow will be ushered into the building's lobby and worshipped. Cows are considered sacred in Hinduism.
	"The rituals are important because before the deity comes, we worship there and purify (the temple) to remove all the negative vibrations and install good vibrations," Shastri ji said.
	Shastri ji's background
	Shastri ji, who came to the United States a decade ago, grew up in the western Indian state of Maharashtra. At age 8, his father asked him what he wanted to do in life. In a family where the men have been Hindu priests for the past 14 generations -- roughly four centuries -- the answer was almost automatic.
	"I said I want to go the same path that you are on," Shastri ji recalls.
	So his father taught him the basics of the Hindu faith, a 5,000-year-old religion that holds there is one god represented in the form of thousands of personalities, or deities.
	At 14, Shastri ji left his family to attend a school for spiritual education in southern India that was a 22-hour train ride away from his home. He studied in the presence of His Holiness Kanchi Kamakoti Shankaracharya, whom Shastri ji describes as the Hindu equivalent of the pope.
	At the time in his 90s, Shankaracharya was considered a living saint. Few people were allowed to approach him. But students at Shastri ji's school could talk with him personally, albeit after showing the appropriate respect by lying prostrate on the ground. Shastri ji said he learned much about meditation from Shankaracharya.
	"It was very spiritual," he said. "If you are around him, you get a kind of energy. It just constantly flows, and you can experience that."
	From there, Shastri ji sought advanced spiritual training in Varanasi, a northern Indian city that is one of the holiest places in the Hindu world. There, he learned astrology, the Hindu philosophy known as the Upanishad and how to perform the 16 rituals that are hallmarks of the Hindu life -- everything from birth and naming rituals to weddings and last rites.
	When his studies were complete, Shastri ji returned to his hometown and taught for two years at a spiritual school. When he came to America, he knew how to speak only Sanskrit. But he picked up English while serving as a priest in Michigan and New Jersey over the past decade.
	Visited Ground Zero
	Shastri ji had a unique view of history when, in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he performed Hindu rituals at Ground Zero in memory of the Indians who died there.
	His purpose was to help them find peace.
	"It was very sad, but my job is to pray for people. But it was inconsolable sadness."Here in Indianapolis, Shastri ji says the Hindu community is entering a "golden time."
	The community, comprising people from all the regions of India, has finished the first phase of construction of a temple that will eventually reflect architectural styles from across India. Shastri ji said he was glad to find a diverse Hindu community that would be open to hear what he learned from his studies in both northern and southern India.
	"It is a great opportunity for me to use all my knowledge in one place."