Hindu temples

Question: which is the WORLDS MOST North Hindu temple and the Worlds SOUTH temple???

Answers on last line on this Blog....

Today was yet another day ..Planning my FIRST yes first ever Canada Hindu temple visit..Somehow it had been almost 5 months since my last visit to a temple. The last one being our all time favorite temple- Delaware Lakshmi temple. It is one of those which you feel like staying back forever....

There are some others I visited like the one in Minnesota ( the older one) which was a temple in a old church..It did not make me feel good.

Anyway As of today my top rated temples are:

1.Delaware Lakshmi temple - Hindu Temple Association

2. Sri Venkateswara Temple, Pittsburgh

3.Siva Vishnu Temple - Washington - Maryland

4. Venkateswara Temple in Bridgewater NJ

Others I visited long long time as a student include : Tulsa Oklahoma temple ( from which I get emails even today), the Ganesha Temple at Nashville, TN and the many many of them in Detroit and a few in Chicago...I have lost track on many....There are couple notable ones too.

The one in the Mountain range of Northern PA Poconos called Sringeri Vidya Bharati Foundation Stroudsburg, PA . I had been there just once and was a thrilling experience.It was so natural and peaceful over there. I could not be more greatful to the people who made such great efforts to bring Sharada Peeta so up to the beautiful hills of Poconos. Even Driving to the hill top was painfulto my car I cannot believe there was preist all alone staying in a house and keeping the temple open round the year..

I liked the temple in Nashville which is on a hill top beautifully located and constructed. I has one of the biggest Ganeshas and rarly one operated by a group from Bangalore, home town!!!!!

The temple next is the one in Bridgewater, NJ beautifully constructed and maintainted. -read high tech...

Oppps before I go to tell about todays visit there is one more of past I want to mention. ZThe temple or call it ashram in W.Virginia....Called the Newvrindaban.com - It was one of trips I wanted to make just to know the place and why it is there in first place.

I was really a once in life time visit (except I promised my wife I will go with her again).IT has cottage houses where Americans live a normal peacful "INDIAN" village life- meaning the take care of cows, milk cows make pure ghee, grow the vegetables and fruits they need and make pure veggi food. Rest of the days time is devoted to singing and praying Krishna..I spent the entire day walking thrutheir normal life, not that anyone asked me to do so..I had this time devoted to them....

First few hours was just about praying Krishna in a temple and then was Hari Katha..some educated person spoke about the good, bad and evil....Then I went to tour their ashrams and the "GO_SHALA" You could hear the Vedic chats from the people various mountain huts far far away.There is NO NO road, except for the dirt gravel road I drove for 15 miles before I could reach the ashram..Please please make time for the visit..It is about 3hrs south of Pittsburgh... It is worth the drive and time.

So, with all this background I was very very interested in know the Canada's Oldest temple..The -Hindu temple Richmond hill is one of several hundred (yes read Hundred) temples around GTA ( called Greater Tornoto Authority) There are temples for all tastes and interests. From Sai Baba to real Sai- Shridi baba and Marriamma to Ayiappa temples to Durga temples to the Foriegn owned Iskon temple in heart of Toronto.

Richmond Hill Ganesha temple is based on south India architecture just resenbles like any temple in India...Believe me that this temple in Richmond hill is not similar to the ones in USA....it is puerly Indian ..No carpets, not shiny marbles nor video cameras and cell phone jammers as seen in High tech Temples on NJ or Maryland and or not many cars seen in parking lots either...-

It is o ordinary temple with ordinary people. But truely still god was same...Same chants of mantras and same flowers and same kinds of people. It was a different in the presentation. Coming from America I may have disliked or felt likedrop down from hih tech to ordinary but it was a nice feeling.

Best of all for first time food was FREEE..(excpet in ISKON I got full meal for staying with them for the prayers)It is simple yet wonderful temple...I found this Tamil owned or operated since it used English and Tamil as dual language at every sign display.

But again got there by 10:30am, it was avery very foggy day in entire GTA....I spent most time watching Venkateshwara pooja and them went down had the food given and really felt the peacefulness as anywhere else. Photos will beuploaded later.....

Yes there are other temples I would like to visit: the newly constructed Minnesota temple ( one of the worlds costliest Hindu temples to build) and our own Delaware Lakshmi Hindu temple which is being constructed and the list goes on....

The "Centro Cultural y Templo Hindu" in Punta Arenas, Chile, is located at 53.10 degrees south of the Equator. It is a building of 800 sq meters financed by the Sindhi community. When inaugurated in 2002 it displaced the Wellington, New Zealand, Kurinji Kumaran temple (at 41.17 S) as being the southernmost Hindu temple in the world!

The Sri Ganesha Mandir in Anchorage at 61.13 N holds the distinction of being the northernmost temple followed by Oslo's Norges Hindu Kultur Senter and Sollentuna, Sweden's Hanuman Mandir.