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The 25th Anniversary Mahotsav of Jain Society of Greater Detroit By Sanjay Bhandari
Jain Society of Greater Detroit (JSGD) temple , which was built in 1998 with enormous efforts, hard work , and vision of many senior society members completed its 25 years in 2023. JSGD celebrated this milestone of 25th Anniversary as a mega event – a Mahotsav - of 10 days The collective efforts of this event led to an extraordinary achievement because it managed to collect $500,000 in donations from the community members.
This event was led by Arvinbhai Shah (Jaya Travels) as Mahotsav Chairman, Naveenbhai Jain as Mahotsav co-chair, Pritishbhai Shah as chairman of Board of Trustees and Jayaben Shah as president of executive team of JSGD. Coordination of this mega event was not an easy task as normally the events are 1 to 3 days long; but this was a 10-day mega event. The program included a daily pujan in the morning followed by swamivatsalya for all members and then variety entertain ment program, Bhavna, Aarti and Mangal Divo in the evening.
The festivities commenced with the auspicious inauguration by the esteemed Deputy Mayor of Farmington Hills, Mr. Randy Bruce. The event was further graced by the presence of the honorable Consul General of India, Mr. Somnath Gosh, who bestowed his blessings upon the jubilant gathering.
We were honored to welcome two special guests from JAINA - Shri Hareshbhai Shah, the current JAINA president, and Shri Dilipbhai V. Shah the past JAINA President - during the first two days of the celebration. Shri Narendrabhai Nandu and his team from India presented Bhavna & Bhakti geet every day.
Gurudev Shri Chitrabhanuji had a special relation with JSGD. In his loving memory, JSGD members were fortunate to experience the stage play Maitri Bhav (in Gujrati) - a tribute to Guruji on his 100th birth anniversary. This drama had a world premiere (in Hindi) at the JAINA convention 2023
There was lot of excitement among the members with 100+ volunteers helping with various activities and events More than 200 participants performed daily in various evening programs during the Mahotsav
Every day in the morning there were auspicious Pujans at the temple starting from 8th July to 16th July. The Pujans involved Navgrah Pujan, Gautam Swami Pujan, Bhaktamber Pujan, Mini Sidhi Chakra Pujan, Saraswati Pujan, Digambar Pujan, Padmavati Pujan, 10 Abhisheks, Asht Prakari Pujan, and Dhwaja Pujan
Getting all participants together and creating an entertainment program each evening was a challenging and huge task. But with the help of a talented pool of program directors , producers, choreographers, actors and dancers, all the programs turned out to be amazing The programs included: dances, religious bingo with recital of many bhakti geets, Raas Garba (evening of traditional dances), live music, Stavanakshari, f ashion show, stage acts, dramas, and many more The whole atmosphere and ambience were like a festival or a mini “Kumbhmela” of Jain Society. With many hours of hard work and practices, the program coordinators and participants were so excited to showcase their talent on the stage in colorful costumes and they got equal responses from the audiences with cheers, appreciation, and applause The society has now got a new pool of talent for any upcoming event within and outside of the society.
On the last day of the event, a huge procession took place concluding in the Dhwaja ceremony conducted by Narendrabhai Nandu & team and JSGD volunteers, followed by a grand Swamivatslaya. The society members have generously donated for various Pujan and other ceremonies.
During the Mahotsav we have seen tremendous participation, involvement and excitement from all society members who came from various states such as Michigan, Illinois, NJ, NYC, Pennsylvania, etc. We also had many guests from Canada and India. During certain events there was maximum attendance and all arrangements related to security, seating and lunch area setup, outside tents, traffic control, parking, and shuttle services were done professionally with efficiency.
These 10 days of the temple’s 25th Anniversary Mahotsav have created many nostalgic moments and happiness for all the members of Jain Society of Greater Detroit that they will remember and cherish for the rest of their lives
Link for Mahostav videos: https://www.youtube.com/@JainSocietyofGreate rDetroit/streams
Sanjay Bhandari is a section editor of the Young Generation section of Jain Digest. He is an international Ambassador with Jains Got Talent (JGT) team of JAINA and has served as a judge of JGT competitions during the 2023 JAINA Convention. He has also held various positions at Jain Society of Greater Detroit. He has two master’s degrees MBA and MCA. He works as an Integration Manager at Marathon Petroleum. Sanjay enj oys traveling, music, movies, cricket, singing, socializing, and writing movie reviews on social platforms.
