Holy Pilgrimage - Hindu temples in United Kingdom-15 at 9:25 PM

Holy Pilgrimage - Hindu temples in United Kingdom

Gujarat Hindu Society, Preston, United Kingdom

(GHS)

Address:
Gujarat Hindu Society and Community Centre
South Meadow Lane
Preston
PR1 8JN

Opening Times

Morning Times
Opening Time 7.00am
Prabhu Darshan 8.30am
Madhurashtak 9.20am
Shrungar Aarti 9.30am
Maha Devji Snan Vidhi 11.30am
(You are requested to bring water, milk before 11.15am)
Thaar and Raaj Bhog  Aarti 12.00 noon
Mandir Closed 1.00pm
         
         Evening Times
Mandir Re-opens 5.00pm
Thaar and Aarti 7.00pm
Shayan Aarti 8.30pm
Mandir Closed 9.00pm

The Gujarat Hindu Society was established in 1965 to cater for and service the needs of the local community in Preston, Lancashire.
Today the Gujarat Hindu Society engages with the community by providing sport and recreational facilities, education, social services and a cultural base for the community in Preston. The centre runs over thirty different activities with the help of volunteers and paid staff.
This is done by working in partnership with many public and voluntary sector organisations for example, Lancashire Adult Learning, National Forum for Health and Wellbeing (Lancashire Gujarat Health Users Forum).
The Gujarat Hindu Society is also a registered charity (No. 505959).

 Hindu Faith

The religious activities and celebration of the various festivals are provided by GHS where the Hindu community from Preston, UK and abroad visit the Temple everyday for darshan. It is a focul point of every Hindu to receive the visions of the divine deities of the Temple.
In maintaining the services for the Hindu adherents, GHS organises annual festivals. Devotees come for darshan, prashad and learning more about forthcoming activities and how they can participate in pujas. By doing this the devotees are able to heighten their spiritual consciousness and re-energise themselves. Some examples include the Shhuddhikaran ceremony i.e. cleansing of the deities to mark the restoration of spiritual energy. During the very auspiscious month of Purushottam we organise a Bhagvad Saptah for the benefit of the devotees. Listening to the katha gives profound insight and vision into the true meaning of atma, the soul and liberation from the cycle of birth.
Every year on the anniversary of the Pranprathishta,  a yagna is performed. Devotees perform the yagna for themselves but the head of the GHS Executive Committee performs the ceremony for the betterment of the Hindu community. The important and revered ‘Sanatan Dharm’ flag is hoisted by the sponsor devotee with much pious and proudness.
Annual events such as Navratri and yagna, Diwali and Annkut, Tulsi Vivah, Jalaram Jayanti, Shivratri, Holi, Ram Navmi, Hanuman Jayanti, Hindola Mohatsav, Janmashtami, Radhaashtami, Ganesh Chaturthi, to name a few are celebrated. The monthly bhajan bhojan are specifically organised for younger children including children from the Balkunj Group. On this day, the bhojan is popularly sponsored by devotees.
A daily service which takes place at Mandir is the Sampurna Seva or Life-time Endowment. Devotees nominate a day of their choice (this can birthday, wedding anniversary or other memorable date) and deity (Bholenath, Ambamata  at the price of £101.00 and Ramchandraji at £151.00 ) . Out of the 365 days in the year, the number of vacant days are Bholenath – 83, Ambamaa – 116 and Ramchandra - 146. Every year on your nominated memorable day, prashad and prayers are offered to the deity of your choice for your personal benefaction. We sincerely appreciate all the help and support from the devoted community and volunteers for their time and energy and of course everyone’s financial support. We strongly acknowledge that the Mandir is OURS and it is everyones duty to regularly bring all the family members to the Mandir and participate in other activities to maintain our religion and rich culture.

Cultural Heritage

t is important that we maintain and showcase our Indian cultural heritage and to pass this on to our future generations. For this reason, we have been running classical and folk dance classes. Currently we have 3 classical dance classes run by experienced professionals. These are attended by over 40 students who progress to official ISTD Classical Dance examination which is equivalent to a GCSE level. Many of our students have taken the dance exams and have achieved high grades.
These classes provide a foundation for excellent performances in the future as well as allowing our community to preserve our traditional dance forms.
The Balkunj Group practice singing bhajans once a month and take part in the monthly Bhajan Bhojan programme. The children also get invited to people’s homes to sing bhajans. The leaders of the Balkunj group put in a lot of hard work and effort to not only train the children but also dress them up in religious characters as well as patriotic figures of India to showcase at cultural functions.
We are also very fortunate to have many opportunities to showcase our culture at the Centre as well as externally outside the community. These include annual events such as the Preston Mela and the Health Mela as well as numerous cultural events that occur throughout the year. This brings awareness to others outside the community and helps with donations to the Society and hence allows us to widen the awareness of our Indian Culture.
The Society is very fortunate to the committed young girls and ladies who take part in the annual Rass and Garba competition organised by the Hindu Council of North. They always put on spectacular performances and represent GHS to a very high standard. GHS is always very fortunate that thanks to Lord krishna’s we achieve such high standards year on year in this competition.

Education

GHS has a language school that has been running for many years in order to allow our young generation to learn Gujarati. Currently we have eight classes for Gujarati School with a total of 136 pupils over Friday and Saturday, whereby children ultimately leave with a fully recognised GCSE in Gujarati. The teachers are dedicated and have a willingness to teach the children. The teachers are invited to regular staff meetings where ideas are discussed for improvement, teaching styles and administrative tasks. The input from Sub Committee Head, teachers and parents are reflected in the highly scored annual results. Extra parent input needs to be given in order to progress this further.
The Annual Parents Day is always a great success as it is attended by dedicated parents who are given the opportunity to discuss their child’s progress. The children and teachers work extremely hard to put on a great show for the parents, to showcase our language and Hindu culture.
In order to maintain our standards as well as improve the service a lot of hard work is put in from our Executive members, teachers, parents and children. This needs to be maintained in order to pass on our mother language to future generations.

Membership & Volunteering

We welcome devotees and visitors to come along to our projects, gatherings, meetings and festivals and also to get engaged at a governance level and be part of the decision making team. We are eagerly waiting for young people’s perspective from both gender. We would like to start off with a few young ladies/gentlemen and we give you our listening ears. We are conscious that to join the committee it has to be relevant in this current age and at the same time maintain our religion and cultural heritage.
We are currently working on a personal development plan for committee members. So you needn’t have any apprehension. Induction and training will be given to ensure we have a committed and dedicated team. We recognise that young people bring professionalism, specialism, expertise, enthusiasm and connect with fellow young people – and the list of reasons goes on. We will also be pursuing eco-friendly projects that will be of great interest to you. As for accessibility for young people, methods of delivering/ passing information is a key factor. The ideal way will be to focus on the social network and to engage with you we need ideas and help to make improvements. We want to be more inclusive, for the Society to reflect the community it serves and encompasses the needs of the new generation of Hindu community and for them to have a stake in the Society. For the Society to continue to function in the present form, it is critical that the next generation take up the challenge and have a stake in the organisation.
According to the Constitution we have a Life Membership scheme open to person of 18 years and over who are of the Gujarati origin of the Hindu faith and who reside in Preston and District. Life time membership is £101 which also entitles you to use and enjoy the premises and facilities of the Society.
Please do come forward, get involved and find out how you can join. We are here to help you.

Volunteering
The Society’s existence and achievements is evidence of being run by volunteers and they come in all shapes and sizes. As a charity organisation, the Society is highly dependent on the volunteer service as they make a distinctive contribution to the running of the Society. Volunteering range from governance and decision making level to simple general tasks such cleaning, cooking, organising, preparations for celebrating festivals and cultural events just to name a few. Virtually, volunteers are the link with a wider spectrum of the community and adds ‘human touch’ with the community. The Society is sincerely grateful to all the volunteers for their time, energy and expertise, however small or big, that are channeled to complement the Executive Committee and staff. Many people have carried out seva whole heartedly for many years. We all know that the benefits of volunteering are rewarded by Lord Krishna. Seva in God’s house is our ultimate role. We want to continue to promote the members of our community to come forward and take part in volunteering and helping our future generation’s endurance.

Enterprise

Conferences at the GHS Centre

GHS Enterprise is a non-profit making subsidiary company of Gujarat Hindu Society which is a registered charity providing a range of social and cultural facilities for local people. GHS Enterprise was founded in 2004, with a remit to generate income from hire of the Centre’s professional conference and events support services and facilities. The revenue is covenanted and allows the surplus to be ploughed back in the running of the Centre. The Centre meets all the legal, financial, health and safety regulations.
During this time of recession the income generation is low. A core group has been set up by the Directors of the Enterprise to focus on marketing and publicing the facilities together with making the facilities more accessible and attractive. Staffing has been reduced to Centre Manager working part-time whilst taking care of managerial and administrative operations with help from the Conference Support Officer.
Regularly used by both public and private sector clients, the GHS Centre’s conference facilities include two meeting rooms, two conference rooms, a 100-seat annex and a main hall which accommodates up to 300 people.
The Directors will continue to monitor performance of the social enterprise and carry out a full review in the forthcoming months to evaluate viability.

Temple Visits

Every year we have over 70 visits from local Scout and Brownies groups, Schools, Universities and professional organisations. Over 2000 young children and adults come on an organised visit to the Centre from many towns in the North West. We have also supported the Preston Faith Forum’s Faith Trail where groups of people go to visit places of worship and that includes our Mandir.
Currently visits are lead by knowledgeable Committee Members who have shown great interest in carrying out the temple visits in a structured manner whereby the visitors are given a guided tour of the prayer hall and the building followed by a short question and answer session. The enormous positive feedback from the pupils and students are very encouraging and we know that they have learnt a lot by coming to the Centre. We feel it is our duty to share our Hindu faith and to complement the Religious Education Syllabus. An annual conference is held at the Centre by the Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE) team where knowledgeable members and adherents from the Hindu faith are invited to inform children from local secondary schools about our religion.
To book a temple visit see the form on the contact us page.

Coach Visits

Annually we have over 600 devotees from various Hindu Organisations in England visiting the Centre  for darshan. Coach visits have been popular for many devotees en route to the Blackpool Illuminations and stopping for Bhojan Prasadi at Preston. If you would like to come and take Darshan at our temple, please see the form on the contact us page.
Both the temple visits and the coach visits are carried out by voluntary members and we do levy any charges to them. However, we accept voluntary donations by adherents and visitors.

Management

Position	Name
President	Bhikhubhai L. Patel
Vice President	Chandrakant H. Limbachia
Secretary	Vijayanti (Umaben) V. Chauhan
Assistant Secretary	Prahladbhai Nayee
Treasurer	Balwantbhai Panchal
Assistant Treasurer	Umedbhai Parmar
Committee Members:	Chhotabhai M. Limbachia
	Dashrathbhai H. Nayee
	Ishwerbhai D. Tailor
	Kantilal L. Mistry
	Maheshbhai Dabhi
	Ramanbhai C. Patel
	Ramanbhai Valand
	Urmilaben D. Solanki
Holding Trustees:	Amratbhai D. Limbachia
	Govindbhai V. Maru
	Mohanbhai Parmar
Staff:	Abhinandana M. K
	Vipin Kotecha
	Purnima Patel
	Nayana Dabhi
	Kamini Gohil
	Mukundbhai Gosai

Contact Us

Thank you for visiting the Gujarat Hindu Society website. We hope you have found it useful. If you need further information about any aspect of our work, please get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.
For general enquiries, please use the details below:
Telephone: 01772 253901 or 01772 253912.
Email: admin@ghspreston.co.uk   
Address:
Gujarat Hindu Society and Community Centre
South Meadow Lane
Preston
PR1 8JN

Events for April 2014

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
	1 Chaitra Navratra / Ramcharit Manas Recital	2 Chaitra Navratra / Ramcharit Manas Recital	3 Chaitra Navratra / Ramcharit Manas Recital	4 Chaitra Navratra / Ramcharit Manas Recital	5 Chaitra Navratra / Ramcharit Manas Recital	6 Chaitra Navratra / Ramcharit Manas Recital
7 Chaitra Navratra / Ramcharit Manas Recital	8 Chaitra Navratra / Ramcharit Manas Recital Ramnavmi	9	10 Kamada Ekadashi	11	12	13
14	15 Hanuman Jayanti	16	17	18	19	20 Bhajan Bhojan
21	22	23	24	25 Varuthini Ekadashi	26	27
28	29	30

Events for May 2014

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
			1	2	3 Health Mela @ Guild Hall	4
5	6	7 Shiv Puran Katha by Shri Giri Bapu	8 Shiv Puran Katha by Shri Giri Bapu	9 Shiv Puran Katha by Shri Giri Bapu	10 Shiv Puran Katha by Shri Giri Bapu Mohini Ekadashi	11 Shiv Puran Katha by Shri Giri Bapu
12 Shiv Puran Katha by Shri Giri Bapu	13 Shiv Puran Katha by Shri Giri Bapu	14	15	16	17	18 Bhajan Bhojan
19	20	21	22 Swami Shree Brahmchari Harishanand Katha	23 Swami Shree Brahmchari Harishanand Katha	24 Swami Shree Brahmchari Harishanand Katha Bhajan Sammelan UK Apara Ekadashi	25 Swami Shree Brahmchari Harishanand Katha
26 Swami Shree Brahmchari Harishanand Katha	27 Swami Shree Brahmchari Harishanand Katha	28 Swami Shree Brahmchari Harishanand Katha	29 Swami Shree Brahmchari Harishanand Katha	30	31

Events for June 2014

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
						1
2 Shree Bharat Bhagat Akhyan Bhajan	3 Shree Bharat Bhagat Akhyan Bhajan	4 Shree Bharat Bhagat Akhyan Bhajan	5 Shree Bharat Bhagat Akhyan Bhajan	6 Shree Bharat Bhagat Akhyan Bhajan	7 Shree Bharat Bhagat Akhyan Bhajan	8 Shree Bharat Bhagat Akhyan Bhajan
9 Gayatri Jayanti Nirjala / Bhim Ekadashi	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22 Bhajan Bhojan
23 Yogini Ekadashi	24	25 Shree Krushnadatt Shastri Pravachan	26 Shree Krushnadatt Shastri Pravachan	27 Shree Krushnadatt Shastri Pravachan	28 Shree Krushnadatt Shastri Pravachan 108 Hanuman Chalisa	29
30

Om Tat Sat

                                                        

(Continued...)                                                                                                                             

(My humble  salutations to the great devotees   and Pilgrimage tourist guide for the collection)

(The Blog  is reverently for all the seekers of truth, lovers of wisdom and   to share the Hindu Dharma with others on the spiritual path and also this is purely  a non-commercial blog)