Hindu Temple Expanding In Galloway Township

October 23, 2009

Author: Emily Previti

Source: Press of Atlantic City

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/atlantic/article_87562b54-c020-11de-a352-001cc4c03286.html

Construction continued Friday at the Vaikunth-Hindu Jain Temple, despite the dark sky threatening rain that would end work for the afternoon.

Workers have completed four of 10 free-standing worship structures slated for the seven-acre compound.

Temple leaders decided to build the outdoor mini-temples to accommodate the gods members want to worship beyond the 15 deities already stationed in the main, 11,850-square-foot temple, according to Cannon Ghelani, who goes to the temple and has been involved in planning the exterior buildings.

"They ran out of room. There are hundreds of different gods in the Hindu faith," Ghelani said Friday. "So ... they built gazebo structures outside, to let people worship quickly and move on."

The $2.5 million Vaikunth-Hindu Jain Temple was the region's first Hindu worship hall. It opened in 2001.