The religious groups often met in members' homes to study the scriptures, conduct pujas, or sing bhajans. Many of these associations rented halls, churches, and school auditoriums to celebrate Hindu festivals such as Diwali, Holi, and Navaratri. They formed religious communities such as the Swaminarayan Sampradaya and cultural organizations such as Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Odisha, Tamil, Telugu, and India Associations. As these immigrants started raising families, they began taking active steps to preserve their culture and heritage. These altars became the first makeshift temples of the early immigrants. The Hindu students and professionals who immigrated in the late 1960s and 1970s often kept small altars and puja rooms in their homes. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 opened the floodgates to Indian immigration. In the 1960s and 1970s, these and other teachers established centers, temples, and ashrams, many of which continue to the present day. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Swami Satchidananda, Swami Rama, and Swami Muktananda. The most prominent of these were Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, A. The rise of counterculture of the 1960s in the United States saw the arrival of many gurus and swamis from India. Its international headquarters Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine opened in California in 1950. By the 1950s, the Self Realization Fellowship had become the most prominent Hindu organization in America. Promoting yoga through his book Autobiography of a Yogi, he opened centers throughout the country. Paramahansa Yogananda also came to the United States to attend a conference in 1920 and establish the Self Realization Fellowship. Although the Society's membership was relatively small, it paved the way for the later rise in popularity of yoga in the United States. Through the 1930s and 1940s, Vedanta Societies were also established in Boston, Los Angeles, Portland, Providence, Chicago, St. The Vedanta Society built the first Hindu temple, called the Old Temple, in North America in San Francisco in 1905. Temple inhabitants : making home in a world of impermanence.Following his famous speech at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago, Swami Vivekananda established Vedanta Societies in New York and San Francisco in the 1890s. Maverick guru with a cause The changing faces of temple worship : the young, the women, and the rest A fine balance : the give and take of religious discipline. The work of a guru : bridge building and boundary breaking. Temple entryways Perspectives on ritual power : the cost, science, and grace of divinity Visions and versions of the miraculous. Encounters with divinity : ritual power and miracles.
Srī Rājarājeśwarī Pītham (Rochester, N.Y.).Drawing on several years of contact with the guru and his followers, Dempsey uses the Rush temple's surprising success to analyze the distinctive dynamics of diaspora Hinduism, including issues of gender and caste, ethnic community, and spiritual enthusiasm. The vitality with which devotees participate in ritual themselves and their ready access to the deities contrasts sharply with ritual activities at most North American Hindu Temples, where (following the usual Indian custom) ritual is performed only by priests and access to the highly sanctified divine images is closely guarded. The temple, established by a charismatic non-Brahman Sri Lankan Tamil, stands out for its combination of orthodox ritual meticulousness and socioreligious iconoclasm. Corinne Dempsey profiles an unusual South Indian temple community in Rush, New York, outside Rochester.