Not only worshipping deities, but also serving devotees or temple visitors is an act of virtue in Indian culture. This cultural value is the foundation of India’s grand temple kitchens from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. The tradition of serving devotees has gone overseas, with the spiraling migration of Indians. Some of the Hindu Temples in the United States are coming up with a canteen or restaurant to feed devotees at very reasonable prices. The very first of them is the Ganesh Temple Canteen at Flushing in New York.

The United States’ largest Shirdi Sai Temple in Groton, an hour drive from Boston inaugurated its canteen on December 22, 2018. The new Sai Temple Canteen is spread across an area of 6000 square feet on the 20,000-sq-ft first floor of the temple building. The canteen at the Sai Temple in Groton is spacious enough to accommodate around 500 people at a time. Initially, the canteen will be operating only on weekends, from 10 AM to 6 PM.

New England’s Sai Temple Canteen serves traditional South Indian dishes including idli, dosa, vada, and poori bhaji at much lower prices, as Surya Kodukulla, who helms the temple’s bhandara team of over 50 volunteers, told Travel Beats. In a month or so, the menu will be extended to include other popular Indian food such as chole batura, vegetable biryani and Mysore bonda, which devotees of various Indian communities are in love with.

Masala Chai and Madras Filter Coffee are the highlights of the Sai Temple canteen menu. While Madras Filter Coffee is a favorite of South Indians worldwide, Masala Chai is what Gujarati, Marwari, Bihari, Bengali and Punjabi Indians are fond of. You can have a plate of 3 idlis for $3 and a piece of dosa for $5. Both the dishes will be served with sambar and chutney at the temple canteen.

In fewer than 12 months of its inauguration in 2017, the New England Shirdi Sai Temple has become a popular hub of cultural and spiritual practices. In addition to classes on Vedam, yoga and chess, monthly free medical and dental checkups are held at the temple complex. Thousands of devotees from far and near visit the temple on weekends. The canteen was a much needed facility for their refreshment after a darshan of the deities, according to Srinivas Jidge, a leading member of the New England Shirdi Sai Parivaar.

The New England Shirdi Sai Parivaar has been organizing bhandara (Annadaan) at the Groton Sai Temple every Thursday, out of the belief, “Physical body is the only important medium to perform Spiritual practice.” Over 300 devotees are unconditionally served in the bhandara volunteered by a team of more than 50 members including ‘ServSafe’ certified chefs. The team cooks and serves food for free on all festive occasions other than the bhandara on Thursday evenings. They also clean the cooking utensils with unflinching devotion.

“A filling meal cooked and served on the Sai Temple premises is a divine blessing for both devotees and volunteers,” said Mahender Singh, President of the New England Shirdi Sai Parivaar.

The Shirdi Sai Temple canteen in Groton, MA welcomes Indians and non-Indians, devotees and non-devotees with equal warmth. We at Travel Beats, an Indian American community portal by Indian Eagle Travel, wish all the best to the New England Shirdi Sai Parivaar.

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Let July 2017 come and Indians in USA will get to inaugurate the largest Sai Temple in Groton, Massachusetts. Currently under construction on a 28-acre site, the New England Shirdi Sai Temple in Groton will be the largest Sai Temple in the United States. Once completed, it will be an interface between a temple for spiritual teachings and a community hub for harmony. The foundation brick of the temple was laid in 2015.

The New England Shirdi Sai Temple in Groton, MA, is designed to be a two-storey building spread over 40,000 square feet. Intended to be an epicenter of the philosophical and spiritual teachings of Sai Baba in USA, the temple will help connect young Indians across America with their cultural roots, according to Mahender Singh, the President of New England Shirdi Sai Parivaar (NESSP).

Currently housed in a 7,200-square-foot rented property in Chelmsford, the temple will have its new complex built for a whopping USD10 million apart from the cost of the 28-acre land, that is $1.4 million. The New England Shirdi Sai Temple in Groton, MA, will have a temple building with a big prayer hall, a sprawling dining hall with a kitchen, and a few community rooms at the first phase of construction.

There will be a multipurpose hall for community events, residence for priests, and new-age classrooms for children’s education as well as cultural activity in the new complex of the New England Shirdi Sai Temple in Groton, once the second phase of construction is over. The third phase, a long-term plan, includes a library and a 500-seat auditorium.

Alongside having spiritual discourses, religious practices, cultural events and enlightening programs, the New England Shirdi Sai Temple in Groton, MA, will allow devotees to hold weddings and other social occasions within the complex. To say precisely, the Sai Baba temple will be open to everyone. In the upcoming new complex, it will house Hindu deities including Lord Ganesh, Lord Vishnu, Lord Krishna, Goddess Durga, Shiv Ling, Lord Ram and Nava Graha.

The mission and vision of New England Shirdi Sai Parivaar (NESSP) is to make the New England Shirdi Sai Temple in Groton a complete ecosystem for spiritual nourishment and a multicultural space for enlightenment. Reportedly, the temple will have its grand opening in July 2017.

NESSP recently launched a nationwide campaign to raise a fund of $500,000 for the ongoing construction of the temple.

Also Check World’s Tallest Temple under Construction in India

Travel Beats is a community magazine for Indian Americans by Indian Eagle, a leading travel organization for Indians in USA. Travel Beats publishes the latest news and stories of the Indian community alongside listing Indian events in US cities.

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