It is an Indian religious and cultural center where opportunities to deepen your spiritual experience and to participate in community events and gatherings
The Indian community of the Washington metropolitan area has come together to fulfill their long cherished dream of building a Kali Temple and a Center for Human Development of their own in Maryland. Following the Vedic traditions, the temple was consecrated on April 27, 2002 by Brahmachari Mural Bhai, Head of Adyapeath, Brahmachari Subratabhai, Vice President of Adyapeath and Pundit Dinanath Tripathy, a noted Sanskrit scholar and Head Priest of Adyapeath, Calcutta. Washington Kali Temple and Center for human Development seeks is fulfilling the dreams and aspirations of the Indian community by providing a temple of Goddess Kali, Goddess Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartik, Ganesh, Lord Shiva and twelve Jyotirlingas, Radha Krishna and Nabagraha Temple . We have been performing regular puja and religious discourses at the temple. We have also built in the temple premises an interfaith center, where people of all faith are welcome to participate in discussions on philosophy, religion and matters pertinent to living everyday life peacefully.
For those of us living almost 10,000 miles away from our roots in India, the temple has given us and our children a forum for interaction with the bearers of the Hindu religion to practice and preserve our religion, culture, traditions, and beliefs in this land of immigrants, the USA.
This temple was initiated by Dr. Pradip K. Ghosh, a local distinguished educator, businessman and philanthropist, when he purchased the eight acres of pristine land along with buildings in an ashram like setting in Burtonsville Maryland, just 16 miles from the heart of Washington D.C.. The Temple is incorporasted as a religious corporation under the laws of the State of Maryland and operated by a board of trustees and a group of dedicated volunteers. It is exempt from taxes under the 501C 3 of the Internal Revenue Code.
As we complete ELEVEN years, and step in to the TWELFTH YEAR OF THE TEMPLE, on behalf of the temple, we are inviting you and your family to join us for a spiritual journey for peace and happiness in this world.
Goddess Ma Kali, Lord Shiva and Goddess Durga jointly represent the manifestation of SHAKTI...
Hinduism advocates the worship of God in a variety of ways, the motherhood of God being one of its most distinct features. The fact is that the Ultimate Truth (Brahman) is beyond the grasp of human mind or human intelligence, being nameless, formless, attributeless and unattached. From the highest standpoint of the Ultimate Truth, there is no creation, preservation or dissolution. The phenomenal world or relative existence is the outcome of Brahman's Shakti or Divine Power, the inscrutable creative power. This Power (Shakti) and the Ultimate Truth (Brahman) are as inseperable as fire and its power to burn, a gem and its lustre or a word and its meaning. All animate and inanimate objects are sprung out from one source - the Universal Energy (Shakti). In Sanatana Dharma, generally known as Hinduism, this Power is known as Divine Mother, a living self-luminous power. This Divine Mother has many divine forms and aspects. God incarnations (Avatars) are the special manifestations of this power.
This Shakti is manifest in the universe. The operation of the world phenomena is founded upon a set of natural laws and universal moral principles. Those laws and principles are the first manifestation of the divine power. It is in that sense that all created beings are the children of the Divine Mother. Yet as children we suffer because of many reasons by which disharmony befalls the world. The world has been anxiously waiting to find relief from pain, suffering, miseries, torture, tyranny, delusion, insecurity, worries, anxieties and the like. In the ancient Hindu texts known as the Puranas, such suffering and expectation is depicted as a constant battle between two forces - the evil and the good. The former is represented by demons that incarnate all forms of human weaknesses and the latter by gods that incarnate the higher virtues. Individuals, societies, nations and even the universal life are subject to and affected by the influence of these forces. In the Hindu texts it is only through the guidance of the Grea Spiritual Power (Maha-Shakti) that peace is re-established bringing joy, assurance and happiness in life to all people.
