Pittsburgh Temple

Pittsburgh Temple

After a long tiring  3-day trip to Washington DC, we decided to visit the famous Pittsburgh temple which is 3 hrs drive from Washington DC.Pittsburgh is considered as "Tirupathi" of US and the reason behind it is, the location of Pittsburgh and Tirupathi are exactly on the opposite side of the globe.

Pittsburgh temple is most commonly visited place by the South Indians residing in US..The temple is located on the uphill which gives us a brief  feel of India's Tirupathi which is on top of "seven hills".The temple is surrounded by the overwhelming greenery with a well maintained garden.The golden chariot in front of the temple holds the procession of the "lord venkateswara" once in a week.  

Main entrance of the temple

Then we headed to see the "aarthi" of the god which happens several times a day.It gives a lot of divine and peace during the time which is well needed to balance the hormones and calm the body.The oppurtunity to seek the darshan is itself a big blessing to all of us.

The temple canteen has  many options for prashad like sweet pongal, venn pongal, curd rice, bisi bele bath, lemon rice, tamarind rice and for very reasonable price like $2 for each box which serves 1 person.The people who serve the food are volunteers and the money we pay for food goes to charity which is a very good things lacking in many other temples now a days.

Golden chariot popularly known as "Ratha" in many parts of south India has been pulled by the temple priests around the temple placing the "lord vekateswara" statue at the center of the chariot.It is really good experience to see the process of procession which involves many devotional songs sung by the people and priests.Traditional chanting is also done during this time.

Golden chariot

Side view of the temple

Lastly, the temple visit was very special experience with a mixture of divine , peace , faith , positive vibes.
Hope you all liked my day and experience in Pittsburgh temple.
Thank you
Jyo