246. diaspora
of devotion either in gratitude or as a petition for particular favors, and to receive a
token of the lord ’s grace (prasada)in return; (d) an institution for educating the
younger generation born in the United States, through weekly language and reli-
gion classes, frequent lectures, sponsorship of classical music and dances (which
have a broad religious base in India), summer camps, and an “outreach” bulletin that
is mailed to anyone who wants it. New temples are rising up all over the American
landscape.
Two new temples have been planned in central Florida, and funds are being
raised for the construction of shrines in Tampa and Orlando. The community hall
for the Orlando temple will be built before the shrine. The community hall is a place
where different groups can meet and where language, music, and dance classes can
be held. It will give Hindus in the Orlando area a place to feel their strength and as-
sert their identity in the midst of a larger society in which many feel marginalized
culturally and linguistically. Organizing groups have not yet made a decision on
which deity is to be enshrined and how worship will take place; it is in this context
that there is greatest fragmentation among the Hindu traditions. Devotees of
Vishnu, Siva, the Goddess, or Ganesha and those who worship Vishnu as Rama or
Krishna want the temple to be dedicated primarily to their particular deity; others
who believe themselves to be “noncontroversial” and “liberal” advocate a nonde-
nominational, almost antiseptic, room of meditation, with an abstract sacred sylla-
ble as focal point and no deity enshrined. Animated discussions arise from these sug-
gestions. A member present at the deliberations remarked wryly, “It is a pity that a
temple that was meant to unite our Hindu community here becomes the focal point
of division.” The key word is “community”; because of the many communities and
many traditions, a consensus is almost impossible. Stands are taken on sectarian,
caste, and regional lines, and the debates continue.
The Penn Hills temple, meanwhile, continues its leadership as one of the “pre-
mier” Hindu institutions in the United States. While sacred time is gently manipu-
lated to coincide with secular time—or to at least make the word “holiday” mean
literally that—Hindus, sometimes inadvertently, sometimes quite self-consciously,
affirm the importance of sacred land in a very traditional way. In interpreting their
religion and trying to make it more relevant and meaningful, some Hindus have fa-
vored the view that all religious phenomena are to be understood as symbols of an
inner, hidden truth; and occasionally these symbolic interpretations have more in
common with Western dream analysis and popular psychology than they have with
traditional Hindu exegesis. As Hindus in the United States and in India build tem-
ples and try to explain their religion to their children and the community at large,