Sri Venkateswara Temple (Balaji Mandir) and Community Center

Namasthe (Namaskar)! This is the Indian traditional way of greeting an individual or a group.
Welcome to self-guided Temple tour.
A Temple or Devalaya is a place of worship. Deva means God and Alaya is House. Several smaller
Temples or Sannidhanams are structured within the main Temple. A traditional Hindu Temple is built
based on the Agamas, which are the Holy Scriptures on architecture. Agamas also provide guidelines for
the conduct of worship (prayer). The Hindu Temple and Cultural Society of USA Inc. (HTCS) was
established in September of 1989. Our Temple was designed by Indian Temple Architects (Sthapati)
according to ancient Indian Temple building codes and was inaugurated (Kumbabhishekam) in 1998.

You are going to enter one of the most Beautiful Hindu temples in North America. Now you are
standing close to a tall brass cased wooden pillar. This is called the Dhwajasthambham or the flag staff
of our Temple. Most Hindu Temples have a Dhwajasthambham in front. Temple worship starts from
this point.
You may see worshippers touching this pillar. Some may go around this one to three times. Some men
place their body flat on the ground in front of this pillar. Prostration on the floor is called Sasthanga
Namaskara. Women also do similar prostration on the floor in a bent way without placing their whole
body on the floor. This symbolizes complete surrender of ones ego in veneration of the Lord. These are
traditional ways of offering one‟s respect to God. Some may place their palms and fingers of both the
hands together, hold the hands close to the chest, and meditate on God. This is a very common way of
offering respect to God or when you greet someone. When you go into the Temple, you will see more
worshippers doing this.
From this point (Dhwajasthambham) you also notice an elevated walkway around the Temple. This is
called the Prakaram. This is also a traditional part of Hindu Temples. Worshippers walk around the
temple on the Prakaram (in the clockwise direction) and offer prayers to God. One can go around as
many times as they wish. This process is called Pradhakshina.
Are you ready to enter Temple? In front of the Dhwajasthambham you see a tall Beautiful tower with
plenty of art work. This is called the Rajagopuram of Temple. The Temple is designed and built
following chola style of Temple architecture.
Please go up the wide steps that you see in front and go through the two tall doors (main entrance to the
temple). You will notice the Temple office to your left and steps going down to your right. You can use
these steps to go down and leave your shoes in the designated area. Some devotees leave their shoes
outside the main entrance, when the weather permits. Visitors must remove their shoes before entering
the Temple. Some also prefer to wash their feet and hands in the designated area in the Temple
basement. When you return to the main floor, standing in front of the temple office facing inside, you
will see two more doors, which are normally wide open during Temple worship hours.
As you walk in, you are entering the main prayer area. This point is indicated by an arrow in the floor
plan shown in the last page. Devotees coming to our Temple can worship several Deities
(Vigrahas)(different manifestations of God). However, Temple priests (who have learned Hindu
agamas from religious schools in India) conduct all the religious services to the Deities. The worship
includes giving sacred bath (abhishekam), decorating the Deity (Alankaram), chanting Deity‟s names /
Praising the glory of the God (archana), offering food to the Deity (prasadam) and various other Hindu
rites which are openly witnessed by all the devotees. After a Prayer session the priests transfer God‟s
Blessings to the devotees through holy lights (harathi) and spoon full of holy water (theertham). In front
of Venkateswara Sannidhanam, devotees also get direct Blessings from God‟s Feet when the Priests
place a silver crown with two symbolic feet (shathari) on the devotee‟s head. Some prasadam (dry
fruits) is also distributed to all the devotees.
Bhagavad-Gita (The sacred text of Hindus) Chapter 4, Verse 11 talks about worshiping the Lord in
various forms of his manifestations. “In what so ever form, men worship me, in the same way do I full
fill their desires”. Everyone follows my path.

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