Indian-born seer Jyoti Shacharya Sri Sri Gajendra Kumar has announced that�construction work on the $14 million Lakshmi Narayan Mandir at Seiwdass Road, Freeport will commence in observance of Divali, which will be celebrated on November 5. "The Laksmi Narayan Mandir will reflect the ancient Vedic tradition dating back to between 5,000 and 10,000 years. "It will be patterned along the Vashti Shastri tradition reminiscient of the spirituality, moral and ethical values of that period," he said."When completed, the Mandir would become a place of peace, solace, tranquility, and deep spirituality, where devotess from all religious and social traditions, beliefs and ethnic compositions could come and meditate, pray, offer obeisance to the respective Hindu pantheon of gods and godesses. Hinduism, Indian thought and Indian civilisation would be our deep focus here," Jyoti Sri Sri Kumar pointed out.
Jyoti Sri Sri Kumar has come from a lineage of Hindu religious leaders spanning several generations over 200 years in India. His father, Jyoti Shacharya Sri Sri Chandrashekar Harayan Kumar was a noted Hindu thinker in the state Madhaya Pradesh in the City of Vidisha, India, and he has adopted part of his father's name. He was born in the State of Uttar Pradesh which adjoins his family's state. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are the main source of the East Indian stock which was brought here from India between 1845 and 1917 to work on the sugar plantations. Some 145,000 East Indians came here. Jyoti Sri Sri Kumar said that the Mandir will serve as a link between India and Trinidad and Tobago as,"India in all of us regardless of time and�space. And to represent this Force, there will be two specially-carved domes, testimonials of the rich and cultural and religious partnerhips and linkages between our two countries," he said.
"While the Mandir will be named the Lakshmi Narayan( Mother Laskhmi-Goddess of Wealth and Lord Narayan(Lord Vishnu) Sustainer of the Universe), there will be murtis or images of Lord Hanuman, Lord Rama, Lord Krishna, Lord Ganesh, and Goddesses Saraswati, Parvati, Radha, Durga, among several others," he said. "Our focus will be to celebrate the major Hindu festivals such as Divali, Nau Raatri, Ram Nownee, Krishna Janamashti, Pitri Paksh, Lord Ganesh Chautri, Krishna Leela among others." Additionally, the establishment of a school to train young and potential pundits with deep religious and philosophical contents along Hinduism and Dharma, Jyoti Sri Sri Kumar said. The oldest form of Hindu scriptures, Vedas, means knowledge and wisdom, and contains hymns, prayers and ritual texts, while the Upanishads are a collection of secret teachings including mystical ideas about man and the universe. The Ramayana consists of 24,000 couplets based on the life of Lord Rama, a righteous king who is an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, he said.