The Washington Post’s Brigid Schulte reports on the problems faced by the Rajdhani Mandir Hindu temple in Chantilly, Virginia (in the Washington Metropolitan Area). It seems that the temple has become a victim of its own success, and is facing an increasingly hostile community.

Ganesh at the Rajdhani Mandir

“The problem is this: The high-tech boom and explosion in immigrants coming to the D.C. area from India have pushed the number of devotees coming to the temple far beyond anything the original builders could have imagined when they began constructing a temple for 250 people in 1998. So, with only 87 parking spaces and sometimes hundreds if not thousands of worshipers coming and going throughout the day, many wind up parking in the neighborhood, residents say, blocking driveways and intersections, making unsafe U-turns and clogging two-lane Pleasant Valley Road. Neighbors have complained to the county so often that some have been asked not to write again. They have even sent photos and videos of cars parked on grass and sari-clad pedestrians walking in the street at night.”

So why don’t they just move into a bigger building as Christian churches often do? Well, there is a thorny theological issue preventing them.

“The 17 deities that sit serenely in alcoves around the maroon sanctuary hall are alive. “They’ve been enlivened in a process we call prana pratishta,” Khanna, a doctor and chairman of the temple’s board of trustees, explained. “Once the stone statues are transformed into living deities, they are rooted to the spot. They can never be moved. That’s why there are temples in India that are 2,000 years old.” And that’s why priests daily perform the Aarti, which literally feeds and cares for the gods…”

Since these problems began, Rajdhani Mandir’s board of trustees have made several good faith efforts to deal with the parking problem, including renting a shuttle service, hiring off-duty police officers to direct traffic, and installing an electronic sign warning adherents to not park illegally. But despite these efforts, local residents are increasingly hostile towards the temple, and are opposing plans to build a new parking lot. In the meantime, County officials have warned the temple that just one more adherent illegally parking in the neighborhood would trigger a lawsuit to shut the whole place down.

“County officials warned temple leaders at a meeting Friday that one more violation, meaning even one more person parking in the neighborhood, could be sufficient grounds to take the temple to court to shut it down, Khanna said. Barring new violations for 30 to 60 days, county officials said they would help expedite meetings with the community and begin reviewing the new parking lot plan, according to temple leaders.”

One wonders if a successful Christian church unwilling to move would be treated in the same fashion. Schulte insists this story isn’t about religion or race, but its hard to imagine that these factors haven’t played a part in exhausting the patience of local residents, and hardening their hearts to new construction that would solve the parking problem. Whatever the ultimate outcome of this conflict, it is an excellent example of the issues we will continually face as America moves into a post-Christian and truly religiously pluralistic reality. Pagans who hope to someday see their own temples dot the American landscape should start taking notes.

Tags: Hinduism, law, Paganism, Polytheism, Religion, Washington DC, Washington Post