Puja Activities for Apr-May-June 2022

By Mita Sinha, Chair, Puja Committee

Ananda Mandir puja activities have been going well so far in 2022. Although COVID did not leave us completely we are still maintaining our regular puja schedule. Devotees have started to come to the temple regularly and on special puja days, temple is almost full.

The month of April was busy for us at Ananda Mandir. It started with Basanti Puja from April 7th and ended on April 11. On April 9th, we had Ram Nabami celebration in the Temple. A lot of devotees visited the Mandir. We had our monthly Satyanarayan Puja on April 10th in the evening. On April 15th, we celebrated our Bengali New Year. The Mandir was open the entire day and people dropped by all day long. It is customary for the Bengalis to start the New Year with a temple visit, so, a lot of people came all day long.

Our Nababarsho cultural function was celebrated on April 23rd at Tagore Hall (Read more below in the next article). We had our monthly Shyama Puja on April 30th. After the puja and arati we all had boxed food.

The month of May was equally busy this year. On

May 3rd, we had Akshya Tritiya Puja. This puja is dedicated to Lord Vishnu. It is celebrated by Hindus, Jains & others. This is considered the best day to start a new business. In some of the Hindu households some people buy gold, silver or other valuables on this day.

On May 9, we celebrated Rabindra Jayanti, also popularlyknown as “Pochise Baiusakh”. This year would have been his 161st birthday. At Ananda Mandir we have a statue of Rabindra Nath Thakur, and an auditorium named Tagore Hall. So, on this day, the statue was decorated with garlands and flowers. We had a cultural program of Rabindra Sangeet and reading of Rabindra Nath’s poems and songs that evening at Tagore Hall (Read more in the next article).

May 15 was the memorial celebration of the highly revered Shri Ram Thakur at our Temple. He had lived in undivided Bengal in the middle of 19th century. We have a lot of followers of Ram Thakur in and around this area. Every year we celebrate this evening with Kirtan. The kirtonias came from out of state to sing for this special occasion. This was a special day in our calendar. The temple was full of devotees, a great celebration for all of us. The evening ended with Satyanarayan Puja. We had boxed dinner after the Puja.

The month of May ended with Phalaharini Kali Puja on May 29. This is a highly auspicious day for the Bengali community. This is a puja of Goddess Kali in the month of Jyeshta in Bengali calendar. We had elaborate puja of Ma Kali, followed by home and arati. The temple was almost full with devotees on this day and we all had an enjoyable dinner.

On June 9, we had Dashahara Puja. The puja was in the morning and some devotees visited the Mandir on this day. The next Puja in the month of June was our monthly Satyanarayan Puja. This puja was very well attended by our devotees.

On June 14, we had Snan Jatra of Lord Jagannath at Ananda Mandir. This is a morning puja observed between 9 am to 10:30 am. This is the annual holy bath festival of Jagannath.

The monthly Shyama Puja was observed on June 28, in the evening and the temple was full of people. Our monthly pujas are always well attended.

We are doing well at Ananda Mandir. Please come and visit the temple as often as you can. All the dates of our Puja services are posted in our website at www.anandamandir.org. If you want to get some private puja done at your place or at the temple, please call at 732-873-9821 and schedule your puja. If no one is available to accept the call, please leave a message and someone will get back to you.