People listen to remarks by Rajkumar Subramanian during the inauguration celebration and community open house at the Sri Ganesh Mandir Hindu temple in Columbus on Aug. 28, 2022.
The Republic file photo
Rajkumar Subramanian is fully aware that the age-old axiom remains true much of the time:
The way to people’s heart? Through their stomach.
That idea is part of the good-natured hope of Subramanian and other organizers of just part of the Annual Day celebration Friday and Saturday, Aug. 23-24 at the Sri Ganesh Mandir Hindu temple, 7930 W. Goeller Road in Columbus. It will include on Aug. 24 a free Indian food festival, known as swadotsavam in Hindi, co-sponsored by the Columbus Area Visitors Center, open to all from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
The local visitors center regularly has promoted cross-cultural awareness, most notably in recent years with a series of downtown summer celebrations linked to the diversity of the city’s Ethnic Expo.
Food will be followed by maybe two hours of a cultural program that will include devotional singing to the goddess Durga — associated with strength, power, spiritual grace, and protection — plus drumming, dancing, storytelling and more.
“The energy level is really quite high,” Subramanian said of the songs and more traditionally done in eastern India. “It will be a really awesome and unique experience for everyone.”
That includes himself, who experienced it for the first time last year.
The weekend also will include worship rituals called pujas, a haven ceremony, in which in which offerings such as grains, seeds, and herbs, and many more worship-related and other activities. The Hindu congregation has long been intentional and purposeful about helping those of other faiths understand their beliefs.
It has done its education not only with activities at the temple, but also through other elements such as exhibits at The Commons in downtown Columbus.
The $1.2 million, 10,000-square-foot Hindu temple, now averaging 250 to 300 core congregants for its services, opened with great fanfare and dignitaries two years ago before an estimated 1,000 people on the grounds. It marked the culmination of local Hindus’ work and aspirations since 1987. The temple is serving about 600 families, according to Subramanian.
He added that Cummins Inc. changes in recent years about local jobs going remote “has not affected foot traffic at the temple.”
Minister Nic Cable at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Columbus also is the executive director of Columbus Interfaith, an entity that includes a variety of local congregations, including the one at the Hindu temple.
In his role with the interfaith group, Cable regularly encourages people of various faiths and beliefs to build bridges of understanding and awareness — and to form relationships with those of various beliefs in a spirit of community harmony that peacefully allows for distinctions and differences.
“I think it can be a really amazing experience if you haven’t gone to a Hindu temple before,” Cable said. “Here, you can see the beauty and the serenity of the space. It’s very powerful to immerse yourself in a culture you’re not familiar with.
“The Hindu people are very loving and welcoming. I think that going to their temple is one good way to personally experience their sense of welcome and hospitality.”
Cable pointed out that visiting a different faith’s house of worship “is not dissimilar to visiting a local cultural celebration or festival.”
See the full weekend schedule
Go to the Hindu temple website at sriganeshmandir.com
