The oldest purpose-built Hindu temple in New Zealand, Bharatiya Mandir (Indian Temple Inc.) is celebrating 28th years of its existence this year from 25th June to 27th June 2021. The three day long annual event is celebrated every year in the last weekend of month of June.

The first day of Friday 25th June is dedicated as Bhajan Sandhya where recital of melodious Bhajans will be done by singing maestro Prof. Basant Madhur and his team. On the second day various cultural activities will be presented by the Bal Vikas children and some invited groups. This is normally 2-1/2 hours long programme. A range of bhajans, dances and drama skits will be presented on the second day programme. The third and last day on Sunday 27th, Patotsava Yagna will be conducted from 10am to 1 pm and then on the same evening a ‘Mata ki Chowki’ is being held from 4pm onward. The feast or the ‘mahaprasad’ will served on Saturday evening and on Sunday afternoon and in the evening also.

‘Patotsava’ is an annual ritual for all the Hindu temples. The word Patotsava is a compound of Paat and utsav-festival. Paat is derived from Patti, a strip of garment tied on the head of a murti, from this evolved Paat. A traditional sacred ritual prevails celebrating the anniversaries of murti-consecration or Pran-Pratishtha of Mandirs. In essence, Patotsava is a re-consecration ceremony, re-invoking Paramtama. This stems from the belief that during the whole year, the murtis lose some divinity from some possible factors, hence this ritual is required to be done time to time. -TIN Bureau