A Hindu Temple situated at Regents Park in Sydney Australia has been set on fire and all statues and icons of Indian Godheads have been smashed and left in ruin. They do not know who has done it but it has caused lot of pain and anguish to devotees celebrating the festival NavRatri or nine nights dedicated to worship of God in female form. Popularity of the NavRatri period for Hindus can be compared to popularity of Christmas to Christians but it continues for a period of nine days to worship nine different form of female Shakti or source of power or God manifest as and in this world.
The temple has been there for about twenty years and but for an incident of stone throwing ten years ago, the Fiji Hindu community has not had any problems until now. During the period of nine days, Hindu hold regular Prayer sessions in the evening. When devotees came at 6pm to open the temple on Sunday evening 14th October 2018, they found smoke coming from inside their temple. Upon investigation, they found some people inside and when challenged, the miscreants jumped out of the window and vanished.
The head priest of the temple Pandit Paras Ram Maharaj was in tears on seeing his Gods broken and strewn all over the floor. The Vandals had not only desecrated the God statues and icons but had also shamelessly thrown prayer material around. They had even set the alter on fire. Luckily the fire was quickly brought under control before it could do any further damage to the temple and the building. The temple is visited regularly by about 250 devotees who come from all over Sydney including from places as fas away as Penrith.
After serial coup in Fiji, a large number of Fijians of Indian descent had migrated to Australia. About twenty years ago, some of them collected funds while others put their homes on mortgage to raise funds and purchased an old Anglican church building. The devotees were all Hindus and brought their own Hindu icons to install in their new temple. Being an old church building, the building has a typical church architecture with lead glass color tinted windows and a wooden cross which is almost a part of the wall.
God is one. People worship HIM in different forms
Although as owners of the building, they could have removed previous faith symbols, the temple committee decided not to remove or dismantle old christian symbols. They placed their Gods beside these symbols and started their worship in their new temple. There is only one God and different people worship HIM in different forms believe Hindus. So, how could these Hindus show any disrespect for the symbols of God worshiped by HIS earlier and different devotees.
Hindu Temple in Reagents Park
The young girl broke in tears and asked me, when we respect their symbols of God so much, why have they desecrated our forms of God. This sobbing young girl had spent countless hours in decorating the temple which has now become a crime scene with broken glass strewn all over.
Her mother who had come to the temple with her other friends ready to do the prayer of the fifth day of nine days was in a state of shock. Nav Ratri prayers are done together communally and now there is no place left to conduct prayers. Quickly, the kitchen building next door was vacated and converted into a make shift temple to continue the most important rituals of the day. The police came and did their forensic work and left at 2am next morning.
The big worry we have now, said the temple president is to restore the temple building back to its earlier glory. We will rebuild the temple he said with a determination, we are not going to go away, this is our home too. Australia is a very fair society. Australians have given us shelter and freedom to practice our religion. A few miscreants among them can not scare us away. Other committee members had more pressing thoughts and were discussing practical matters like how shall we raise funds to restore our place of worship.
Donations to reestablish the previous glory of the temple can be made at https://bhartiyemandirsydney.org/donations/
The temple has also set up a GoFundMe campaign at
https://www.gofundme.com/
It is time that Australians of all walks of life show their solidarity with these new Australians.
It is time for leaders of all faiths to come in their support and condemn this criminal act by a few vandals who do not represent fair dinkum Australia.
It is time for elected local, state and federal representatives to come and wipe the tears of that young girl and assure her that you are also a valuable part of our society and are free to practice your faith.
It is time that state and federal Parliaments pass a resolution condemning this disgraceful act.
If it has happened to one temple today, it may happen to other places of worship tomorrow.
Lets make sure it never happens again.
Lets keep Australia fair.
Hindus in anguish
AUSTRALIA CONDEMNS
Australian Leaders Condemn this shameful act :
- David Coleman, Minister for Immigration
- Deplorable…goes against very essence of Australia.
- Ray Williams, Minister for Multiculturalism, NSW, Australia
- Luke Foley, Leader of Opposition, NSW state, visited the temple
- Anyone who incites, threatens, or practices violence against people on the basis of race or religion should face the full extent of the law.
- Michelle Rowland MP, House of Representatives, shadow Minister of Communication
- Jason Clare, MP, Federal Parliament. shadow Minister of Resources and Northern Australia
- Julian Leeser MP
- This is an appalling act of vandalism … both criminal and unAustralian.
- Jodi McKay, MP Strathfield
- Daniel Mookhey Member of Legislative Council
- Prakash Mehta, President, Hindu Council of Australia
- Dr Deidre Palmer, President Uniting Church in Australia
- Jeremy Jones AM, Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council
- Attacks on religious institutions are intolerable and shameful.
- Convenor of RfP NSW and life member ECAJ
- condemn the shameful attack on a Hindu temple
- Abd Malik
- We call upon the Government to identify the culprits and ensure that such incidents do not repeat ever.
- Cecilia Mitra, Federation of Australian Buddhist councils
- condemn the shameful attack on the Hindu Temple in Regents Park
- Stan Widdison, Daily Mail Australia
- terrible incident that took place at Bharatiye Mandir Temple. very sorry to hear about what’s taken place.
- Kevin Rigby – An Australian
- Sorry to hear your temple was vandalized. I want to contribute to assist with repairs.
- Andrew WA – An Australian
- While not a supporter of religion in general, … very disappointed to see what was done to you by some terrible people. ..People should be free to believe in what they believe without this sort of thing happening to them. I have sent you a small donation.
- Peter Sly – An Australian, Hobart
- so sorry to hear about the vandalism of the temple in Sydney. This is something that simply should not happen. I just wanted to add my voice to those supporting you because it upset me to find out that this happened.
- Pablo NSW, An Australian
- deeply disturbing vandalism that was committed at the Barathiye Mandir Temple in Regent’s Park, and we (my partner and I) would like to know how we can donate money.
- Lucy Hall NSW, An Australian
- I was very upset to hear about the vandalism of the Barathiye Mandir Temple in Sydney’s Regents Park. Do you know how I can send them a donation?
- Anne-Maree, NSW, An Australian
- I was very saddened to hear of the destruction of the temple recently. I would like to send $50 towards the rebuilding. Where and how do I do this please?
- Prabir Maitra, Australian Bengali Hindu Association
- there should be better protection to places of worship
- Pooja – An Australia Hindu
- felt extremely bad. On our pre-Karvachauth event we will keep a donation box to help rebuild.
- Victoria Bismire
I stand with the Hindu community
I was horrified to see the awful damage to your holy place.
I am so sorry that this has happened.
Even though I am an agnostic, I firmly believe in the freedom to practise one’s faith. This vandalism was completely unacceptable. Shame on the perpetrators.
As an atheist who strongly believes in a multicultural and pluralist community free of religious bigotry and violence, I am proud to stand with our Hindu community.
I stand in solidarity with the Hindu Community.
I saw the sbs news article and was sad to see such a thing happen. Whilst I’m not religious I wish your temple well
COVERAGE BY AUSTRALIAN MEDIA
It’s terrible that someone did this to you – Australia is better than this. Hope this helps with the restorations.