As posted earlier in this publication, the previous letter regarding the ongoing fiasco and controversies at the Hindu Mandir has brought a firestorm of comments from the readers. As per these letters, the current management’s divisive and diversionary operating policies are not working in the best interest of Hinduism or the community.

Below is another article provided to vegasdesi.com from a well-respected old-timer community member who prefers to stay anonymous on such controversial issues.

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the above letter belong to the author and are not an opinion of or endorsement by vegasdesi.com. The editor is pleased to provide vegasdesi.com with an open forum for the community members to engage in issues impacting the small but prosperous local Hindu community. 

I would like to express my thoughts on the most recent article in Vegas Desi regarding what is happening at Hindu and Jain Temple.

In general, our Indian public rarely ever expresses negative feelings and sign an open letter with signatures that has been promised by Vegas Desi. I am expressing my own opinion and it is an opinion of one person only. I have no force and no power behind my opinion except a feeling that if trustees decide to listen to me, it might give them some positive benefits. 

Like others, I have watched and enjoyed the services as well as the benefits of our Hindu and Jain temple for the last 22 years. Like others, I feel that the temple is an important institution in las Vegas that has served an extremely important role. I can never thank enough to people like Dr. Ranjit Jain, Dr. Jaldeet Daulat and Mr. Swadeep Nigam besides many others to have served my family and others for these sorts of services that they have provided.  Lately, many of my friends and I have felt that the temple has not been serving its community members as well as it has been doing it for a long time. I am not totally sure as to where the shortfall has come from but, I would like to express my thoughts here, Only if, Vegas Desi decides to publish  my thoughts  without using my name. I do not wish to publish my name to protect my family’s wellbeing. 

There is a disconnect between the trustees and the executive committee’s operations for the last 2 years Executive committee has undertaken a job of operating the day-to day activities with a purpose that seems to be  completely misdirected and the trustees seems to have been largely unaware of it. This EC committee has been acting from the day 1 to reduce priest’s  influence on the devotees. The matter of fact is that both the priests are considered by devotees to be a  channel to God. They are the guide and director of our religion and that they show us the way to become more spiritual and religious people.

Both priests have done an admirable job of serving the need of our community as best as they can under the circumstances. Like any other human beings, they have occasionally made small and insignificant mistakes but in general, a marvelous work has been going on at the temple. Most all devotees have been satisfied with their knowledge, religious abilities and work habits.  We devotees have found that our needs have been satisfied at our wonderful temple. The temple is not just a great physical building. It has been satisfying devotees for 20 plus years due to the wonderful nature, abilities, devotions, and hard work of the two great families of our priests. Not only two priests are working at this institution but their whole families devote hundred of hours every month to take care of the temple.

On the other hand, the present Executive committee has taken an attitude that the priests are very powerful people at the temple and have unilaterally decided to reduce their influences on the devotees. The EC has determined that the priests are nothing but ordinary employees of this religious business. So, the EC have tried to take control of the relationship of devotees and priests by trying to reduce the so called power of priests in the temple. To explain what I mean by that is the fact that the EC group are trying following steps which as you can see are extremely detrimental to the wellbeing of the temple.

1. Taken steps to reduce their salaries, which probably is in the range of $2,000-to $3,000 a month. You might be shocked to know the small amount of salary that the temple has been paying. Yes, priests do get their housing, health and life insurance, and few more small items paid for by the temple. I have heard that their salaries were reduced to practically zero during the part of Covid and probably has not gone back fully. Yes, they get a small part of outside puja fees collected for every puja that is conducted in a devotee’s home but most of the outside pujas are performed during their off days. Yes, devotees give some Dakshina for the outside pujas but EC people forget that the priests use their own car, gas, insurance etc. to perform these pujas.
2. The EC members want to control the amount of Dakshina that devotees wish to give to these two priests. They have been trying their best to control the give and take of Dakshina between devotees and Priests. Reality has been that the whole business of Las Vegas casino’s service business is based on tips and even the most powerful entity IRS has not been able to control or coordinate tipping business. They have determined that if a customer volunteering wishes to tip a provider of services, then no one should control or take away that privilege.
3. Instead of serving free food to devotees on Sunday lunch, the EC group has decided to sell the food for $10 for every meal. There are ways of getting sponsors who can cook, or buy food to provide it to devotees, they take pride in making a thousand or two per month utilizing hundreds of hours of volunteer time. This is bad for the temple’s image
4. EC group tries to make priests work and do outside pujas during the priests’ days off and vacation time. Also, now priests must buy samagries during their off days, which are being sold to devotees at a very high rate. The temple is considered a business place first and a place to make a large profit at the expense of devotees and priests.

My humble requests to the board of Trustees.

Please reconsider your roles and responsibilities to this wonderful Institutions. Please elect a new EC group and make attempts to not consider the temple as a place to do business but a devotional place to take care of the needs of the community for religious purposes. Please realize that the Hindu and Jain temple devotees has been steadily declining faith in it. It is not a place of business. Priests are not ordinary employees working for you or EC group. They are the heart and soul of Indian community. Yes, if they make mistakes or behave uncontrollably bad, please guide them. But, giving total control of making the temple a place of business in the hands of EC group is a serious mistake. You can demand our names and ignore our requests. When you do that, temporarily this dialogue will disappear.

The only reason a few of the people do not wish to provide our names is that we are also socially friends with people either on EC group or trustees. And we wish to keep good relations with them.  You can even demand the Vegas Desi to stop printing articles that are negative and ignore our sentiments. By ignoring and keep going the way the temple is going would make trustees feel good that you are running a good business. But, some day in the future, you will realize that your business customers (!!!) have been lost and you will be running a temple that has very few donating members. Then what? Will you be able to run a temple with a few trustees patronizing the temple? We would like you to realize that more and more devotees are moving away to the other temple. For the past two years, especially since the arrival of the new management team, the Mandir has been going only in one direction, DOWN to an unknown abyss with no prosperous future in sight. 

If you feel that the devotees who are sincerely requesting your attention to the deteriorating circumstances are possibly right, you can consider taking the following steps.

(A). Please reduce the fees for outside pujas.

(B) Encourage better volunteers  to become members of EC group

(C) Respect Priests as a wonderful people who are devoting their life for the well being of the temple. Please treat them as a needed and necessary pillar of strength for the temple instead of treating them as ordinary employees. They will bring so many pujas and money for the temple that the shortfalls would get eliminated. 

(D) Talk to the non-trustees and normal devotees and keep in touch with us. We will tell you what is going on that is good and what is going on that is wrong at the temple.

(E) Make us members of the temple for $100 a year fees. We are willing to pay. 

(F) Provide us with free prasad every so often by having us donate every so often and stop this useless practice of cooking and charging $ 10 for food. In other words, stop trying to be a third rate restaurant. 

Thank you if you listen to us and good luck if you decide not to.