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The first temple for Mahatma Gandhi where devotees gather everyday
Gandhi Gudi (temple) was built in 2014 on a four-and-a-half acre plot of land at Pedakaparthi in Telangana’s Nalgonda district, about 75 km from Hyderabad. A six-member trust manages the temple with donations from worshippers.
Hundreds of people will gather at a temple built in Mahatma Gandhi’s memory at Pedakaparthi in Telangana’s Nalgonda district on the occasion of his 149th birth anniversary on Tuesday.
On average, 100 devotees visit the temple, the first one dedicated to Gandhi in the country (the second is to open in Vijawada, in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday) everyday.
“On Gandhi Jayanti (Tuesday) there will be visitors in big numbers from nearby villages and also from far-off places… There will be day-long bhajans; competitions for school students in elocution and essay writing on the life of Gandhi and his preaching,” said J Naresh, a temple administrator.
Gandhi Gudi (temple) was built in 2014 on a four-and-a-half acre plot of land about 75 km from Hyderabad. A six-member trust manages the temple with donations from worshippers. The donations are just enough to maintain the shrine, pay the salary of a priest and conduct daily rituals.
“We somehow felt the present-day youth do not have much knowledge about Mahatma Gandhi and his philosophy. At the same time, though, they have not forgotten our culture of going to temples regularly. So, we thought of attracting them towards Gandhism by constructing a temple for the Mahatma,” the trust’s chairman, M Sreepal Reddy, said.
The trust members pooled money to construct the temple, which opened in September 2014; they gradually developed it with the donations collected over a period of time.
A two-storey building houses the main temple on the top floor. A centre, where devotees can meditate in front of a marble statue of Gandhi, is located on the ground floor. The temple also has a library dedicated to Gandhi’s philosophy. Scriptures such as the Bhagawad Gita, the Quran and the Bible are also kept in the library.
The temple opens at 6 am with chief priest Kurella Narayana Chary’s chants of Suprabhatam (wake-up hymn). The priest performs 16 different types of pujas prescribed in the Hindu scriptures for any temple.
Chary said visitors to the temple believe that Gandhi has miraculous powers. “A Rajasthani businessman, who came here along with family, told us that he was struggling to get his daughter married for several years, but her match was settled within days of visiting this temple,’’ he said.
“So was the case with a central government employee from Bengaluru, who was desperate to get transferred to Andhra. Within a few days of having darshan of Gandhi temple, she was transferred to Visakhapatnam.”
People tie saffron ribbons to a banyan tree on the temple premises for the fulfilment of their wishes. “Mahatma Gandhi fulfils all their wishes,” Chary said.
