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I was born in the city of Kanpur UP in 1932. My father's name was Pundit Vaikunth Nath Sastri and mothers name was Srimati Sastri. Both of my parents were very religious. Since I was five year old, I had a dream of building a Mandir. Whenever we used to visit any small Mandir, I used to think about it. Time passed, I finished my education and got married to Dr. G.D. Sharma. We both got settled at Lucknow. We both stayed there before my Husband went to Canada in 1960 for his Doctorate. While he was doing his studies, I got involved in many social activities in Lucknow and with the help of our nab ours, we formed a 'Mahilla Mandal', which still exists. I always keep trying to look for various opportunities to help others. In 1962 Indo-China war, Nehruji requested contribution from every citizen. I managed to collect 25 tolla sona and gave that to him to help our army. In 1962 December, I joined my husband in Canada. There we stayed in one of our friends' house for six months. My Friend recently had her third baby and she was in the hospital. While she was away, I took care of her kids. I always kept god's picture with me. One day when I was praying, one of my friends kid came in the room and asked me, why I am worshiping a monkey (for Hanumanji). I was very hurt with his comments and promised myself that if we will stay outside India, then I will teach Hindu culture not only to our kids, but to everyone else kids too. Today I have 5 kids and 10 grand kids. I feel very proud to say, that all of them have very good knowledge about our culture and rituals. Once my husband completed his Ph. D. in 1964, we went back to India, where Alok was born. After his birth, we moved to Nigeria and later to Sudan on a U.N. mission. We stayed in Sudan for more than 5 years. I and my husband kept helping Indian communities in Nigeria and Sudan. Finally in 1972 we moved to Raleigh USA. When we came to Raleigh, we started doing Ramayan and Satyanarayan Puja on every Hindu occasion. Many people told us, why we do all these and not enjoy the life as everyone else does. But it was written in our destiny to spread Hindu religious & culture everywhere. So we keep doing, what we were doing. slowly-slowly community started getting use to it and they started adopting us and enjoying doing the prayers. Mr. Mathur's and P. Chand's family started joining us on daily basis. Once few dozen families started gathering, we started the Hindu Society of North Carolina in the year 1972 in our basement with two dollar membership. In December 1980 we purchased a church where we started doing prayers every, 'Purnima' and also started doing Diwali and Holi gathering. In 1984 one day during Diwali festivities, I saw Goddess Durga, who was asking me to build a Mandir. I woke up and discussed it with my husband. We were not sure, how to get that much of money. Since
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HSNC had only $5000 funds with it. In 1985 I requested Mr. H. Pandiya to become HSNC president and start looking for a site. Finally, with god grace Arvindji found a six acreage site in Morrisville. It was for $70,000. We all started raising the money. We sold the old property in $8,000 and took the loan for the new Mandir. With god grace, our dream became the reality in 1986, we now had our own Mandir. It is my believe that who so ever visit this place with good hart and pray to the God. He/She will surely be granted his wishes by the great lord. It is very resent when we also got two more pundits at our Temple and finally we also have our own cultural Hall. HSNC and Hindu community now has more than 14 acreage of land at this site. I still have a dream to include one children park, 'Gumbad' for mandir, one picnic shelter for the community, one water fountain and housing for the senior citizens at this site. With god grace we will do this together in our near future. Now our Indian community is pretty big in the Triangle. If we want, we can surly build anything.. I was the president of HSNC for 10 times and still feel very energetic to serve the community for a very long time. Thanks to all the HSNC members and Indian community at large for keeping yourself and your kids aware with the Hindu culture and the ritual. God bless you all.
- Saroj Sarma
HINDU SOCIETY OF NORTH CAROLINA CELEBERATION AND APPRICIATION (1976-2006)
December 2006
