Temple fully reopens after closure
THE Foresthaven Hindu Dharma Sabha fully reopened for worship last Sunday after months of being closed.
Balwanth Gunpath, the chairperson of the sabha, said: “When the pandemic hit us in 2020, I chose to close the temple for the year. At the time we did not know much about the virus and I was concerned about the well-being of devotees. We formed a WhatsApp group with devotees and I posted devotional messages.”
Gunpath said even in 2021, when the infection rate was low and other religious institutions decided to reopen, he chose to remain closed.
“Other temples had an outbreak of the virus after having services and again I did not want that to happen to our devotees. We decided to do a drive-in service only on a Sunday morning for an hour. Devotees parked their cars in the parking lot and our service was conducted. No one was allowed to get out of their cars.”
He said at the beginning of the fourth wave
he stopped having the drive-in service.
“Normal services inside the temple resumed last Sunday.”
Gunpath said the running of the temple was impacted during the pandemic.
“We found it difficult to pay our utility bills, but somehow we pulled through. We are now planning for our Shivaratri prayer in March.”