Photo By Temple of Ma GayatriThe 4,200-square-foot Temple of Ma Gayatri is the first permanent Hindu structure in Katy. A two-day celebration June 27 and 28 will make its opening. The building is not complete, but the main worship hall, kitchen, dining room, classrooms and other rooms are finished.
Hindus in Katy have their first permanent place of worship.
The Temple of Ma Gayatri at 20914 Park Road will open in a two-day, tradition-filled celebration Friday and Saturday June 26 and 27. Named after a Hindu deity, the 4,200-square-foot temple will conduct prayer and discourse on Friday and host a main ceremony on Saturday.
“This center is very important because it’s opening in Houston, the fourth-biggest city in America,” said Vishwa Prokash Tripathi, an invited priest from India who will conduct the ceremonies and lead prayers both days. Tripathi is part of a global Hindu organization, the All World Gayatri Pariwar, that supports the temple.
“We are very happy and pleased. There are 5,000 Indians living in Katy,” Tripathi said. “This will be a center of unification for all of them.”
The All World Gayatri Pariwar helped in the temple project based on the need for a permanent building in that community, Tripathi said.
Friday’s opening will be at 4:30 p.m. and will include a tradition called Kalash Yatra, which is a walk by women that signifies a pilgrimage to holy places.
On Saturday at 8:30 a.m., a temple-opening ritual, Murti Pran Pratishtha, will invoke the consciousness of the temple’s deity into a physical representation of that deity. Prayer will follow into the evening.
About 500 are expected to attend Saturday’s ritual, and 300 should be there for Friday’s opening, temple vice president Mahesh Patel said.
“We’ve overcome hurdles and worked through the construction process to come to this point,” Patel said. “We hope to keep working and now are ready to open.”
A three-trailer temporary Hindu establishment named after the goddess Sai Durga opened in the city in 2014. Patel said the Gayatri Temple will now serve as the prominent worship destination for Katy Hindus.
Temple leaders bought the building in October for $325,000, Patel said. Renovations that began in late January have cost more than $250,000. Funding has come through a $235,000 bank loan as well as donations from residents in surrounding communities, Patel said.
While the building is not complete – it still needs decorative items such as a dome and pillars – the main worship hall, kitchen, dining room, classrooms and other rooms are finished.
Before the building was acquired, members of the group held Sunday prayers for four years at a rented building on Hillcroft Avenue in southwest Houston.
The temple will be open daily, said Patel, who owns a postal business in Clear Lake.
The temple will be led by 15 to 20 volunteers. Patel expects the number of worshipers to increase.
Houston’s largest Hindu temple, the 25-acre Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in southwest Houston, serves 15,000-18,000 people each week.
Viral Patel, a volunteer at the Gayatri temple, hopes the new worship center will make a large impact on the Hindu community in Katy.
“It will not just be a temple, but a location for Hindus in Katy to balance the stress of life,” Patel said. “It will be a significant resource for us.”