"The temple has been constantly attracting more devotees. We want to serve our devotees and add services for the next generation. This is why we would like to build a new temple" say Neelkanth Mishra and Mahender Singh who are founding members of the New England Shirdi Sai Parivaar that is planning to build a formal large Baba temple.
Can you tell us a little about your professional work?
Neelkanth Mishra: I work at CISCO as Senior Computer Software Engineer. I have been in the computer industry for the last 20+ years. I started my career in 1992 at a startup company in New Delhi (Magic Software) to TATA Unisys Ltd before moving to Boston in 1996.
Mahender Singh: My degree is in Computer Engineer. All my professional life I have built software systems for number of verticals such as Financial Services, Telecom, Utilities, Healthcare, Education, Mobile and Cloud. I currently manage a software group for a Healthcare company building a cloud based Health Care Platform which provides intelligent, actionable information that helps facilitate improved care, better clinical outcomes, empower clinicians to make more informed decisions, and patients to better manage their own care.
What motivated you to start a temple?
Mahender Singh: It started off as few friends & family meeting for social gatherings where children's chit chat and we adults talk about India and our experiences immigrating to this country and how to raise our kids and give them our cultural values. During such gatherings we started devoting some time where all family members and kids sit together and sing bhajans very informally. It started to become a regular feature of our gatherings. Then in years 1999-2000 a devotee of Shirdi Sai Baba who was in her nineties and we used to call her "Mai" (Meaning Mother), visited Boston to a friends house and joined us for a bhajan session. She observed and said that "Baccho" (meaning children) you sing very melodious bhajans but why don't you light some Diya's during your session and conclude with Aarthi of your Gods. Upto that point we only knew sai baba from Manoj Kumar's famous movie "Shirdi Ke Sai Baba" but That was the moment it started us all on a journey for a spiritual quest to discover ourselves and know more about Shirdi Sai Baba, it then became a caravan as families after families started joining the group and soon it became difficult to do these gatherings at individual houses. This is when the thoughts started coming to have a place for such gatherings and a Temple for Shirdi Sai Baba. In 2006 few Sai Baba devotees who were looking for a Shirdi Sai Group happen to attend one such Bhajan Gathering. Since these devotees were also thinking on the same lines to have a Temple for Shirdi Sai Baba, the vision suddenly aligned and concrete steps were initiated towards a grand Shirdi Sai Baba Temple. Soon 1000 sq ft space was rented at Sadhu Vasvani Center and 40 families came together to donate seed money to bring a Shirdi Sai Baba Moorthy from India and Temple was officially started operations in 2007.
Has your life changed since you have begun to give so much time to the temple? If so how?
Neelkanth Mishra: After getting Baba’s blessings, we realized that life is not just for you but what difference you can make in others life. Even though we all have 24 hours in a day, but we find time to work on the bigger projects beyond what is in needed in day to day life. My wife Rekha and kids always supported me throughout this journey. Our believe in ourself got strengthened and our thinking became more positive towards the life.
The temple seems to constantly grow. Why do you think there is such an interest in Baba temples?
Mahender Singh: Baba was a simple Fakir, but he has such powerful message to the human kind to alleviate their sufferings. Baba showed the path to people to discover Gods in-side themselves and things surrounding them. Baba never dictated to people to follow any particular belief or faith and welcomed people to follow whatever traditions they were taught to follow. This is the reason Baba's devotees come from all faiths. A universal message of faith and patience, love and togetherness is what is attracting devotees to throng Baba temples.
You are now building a huge Mandir. What is motivating you to do that?
Neelkanth Mishra : Baba devotees are the motivation behind building the permanent Baba Temple. We also want a temple for our future generation where kids can grow spiritually and provide constructive contribution to the society. With the growth of devotee base, we are running out of space in current location too. I’m sure with the consistent support of devotees, volunteers and with Baba blessings the permanent temple is not too far.
There are many temples in the area . What makes this Mandir unique? What can New England hope to gain from this?
Neelkanth Mishra: This is the temple based on fundament belief of togetherness i.e. “PARIVAAR†- Of the Devotees, By the Devotees and For the Devotees.There are NO fees for any service that is performed in the temple like Satya Narayan Pooja, Car Pooja, Archana etc, or any Spiritual Event. No charge for food, tea, water etc. When devotees come to temple, we want them to have peace of mind, relax and get immersed with the Divine. Go home and hug their family and have a peaceful good night sleep.
New England devotees are already getting the spiritual benefit from our temple. Many many devotees who visited our temple have shared their personal magical experience from Divine Sai Baba. The new temple will be place where Spiritual, Personal and Intellectual growth will provided to the devotees.
In the projected new temple, we are going to have a grand auditorium where all type religious functions can be performed. One can have private events like Marriage, Arangetram etc.
What is the current status of the temple?
Mahender Singh: We have secured Site permits and soon to acquire Building permits. We are planning to break ground sometime before Winter sets in this year.
What is your fundraising target?
Mahender Singh: We are looking to raise $ 2 Million in new funds to complete Phase 1 of the building, which will enable us to move in by 2016.
We have few fundraising programs like - Sponsor Rooms in new Temple, Divine Leaf, Divine Brick, Square Foot, Dollar a day etc. Donors can approach us
(www.nessp.org) for more details if required.
How can New Englanders help?
Neelkanth Mishra: New Englanders, come to our temple, feel the presence of Divine Sai Baba, get blessed and then make this as your own temple. Yes, to complete any big project, money is essential requirement. We want devotees to make the building of permanent temple as their own dream and extend their hand whole heartedly with “Tan-Man-Dan
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