HOUSTON, TEXAS, December 8, 2015 (Chron): Shri Shri Sugunendra Theerta Swamiji, pontiff of the Shri Krishna Vrundavana branch of the international Hindu group Shri Krishna temple, recently attended the inaugural ceremonies for the Shri Krishna Vrundavana temple in Sugar Land. The new location for the temple still looks like what it once was – an event hall for hosting quincineras (latino coming of age ceremonies). Disco lights hang from the ceiling and its previous name, “La Fiesta Hall,” is painted on the floor of the entryway.
But on a recent Monday evening, the temple’s worshippers, who purchased the facility at 10223 Synott Road for $1.3 million in October as their first permanent location, made the hall their own. “We are very happy,” said Raghuram Bhat, the temple’s head priest. He smiled as he looked at the worshippers, and the sound of devotional music played in the background.
Shri Krishna Vrundavana is the fifth branch in the United States of the international Udupi Puthige Matha, and is part of a Hindu sect which was founded about 800 years ago in Udupi, a town in southern India. Most of the temple’s worshippers are originally from that region. The Sugar Land location is the only temple within a 1,500-mile radius where Hindus can worship the Saint Raghavendra Swami. At the temple’s inception, there were only 200 worshippers. Now, there are more than 800, member BN Murali said. By the end of 2016, Murali said he hopes that the worshippers will have about $1 million raised to create a new entryway in the hall to serve as a sacred space for murthis.