May forum at Shri Ram Krishna Temple discusses ways to preserve Hindu culture
The fourth Australian Hindu Organisations, Temples and Associations (HOTA) Forum was organised at Shri Ram Krishna Temple, Austral on Sunday, 7 May. HOTA is a forum of participating Hindu temples and other Hindu organisations working together to discuss and deliberate various topics of common interest, issues, ideas and opportunities with the objective of enhancing community service and preservation of Hindu culture.
More than 20 temples and Hindu cultural associations came together and each presented their contributions and future ideas for community service.
Rudra Kumar, VHP HOTA co-ordinator, spoke on the vision, benefits of conducting the HOTA Forum as an annual project by networking and collaborating on a common platform. He also presented evidence on how similar HOTA Forums have benefited the cause of preserving Hindu culture and enhancing community service in other countries such as USA and New Zealand.
The outcome of the forum as agreed through the group discussions and subsequent presentations made by three teams of delegates resulted into a number of initiatives, which are assigned to following champions: Ham Gopalan (Sree Ram Krishna Temple—SSDS) for youth engagement and development, women’s empowerment, and government funding; Jaishankar (VCCA) and Arunesh Seth for training and stakeholder engagement; Vijay and Rajesh (SEWA International) for the Hindu blood donation drive; and Dave Passi (Indian Seniors Group Hornsby) for educating and assisting senior citizens.
HOTA co-ordinators Rudra Kumar and Ramarathinam will follow up with Champions on a regular basis on the progress of these initiatives. The Champions will plan to represent and showcase their progress and achievements in the next year HOTA forum.
President of Shree Ram Krishna Temple Anil Singh welcomed the delegates with an inspiring opening address, urging delegates to think about a need to put a unified effort to achieve forum objectives of serving the Hindu community in an effective manner.
Also, General Secretary Parjeet Singh and his team helped in coordinating the forum including arrangement of morning tea and a healthy lunch for the delegates.
Raj Dutta, Strathfield Councillor, and Natarajan (Nat) Iyer of Sri Venkateswara Temple, who always extend their hands towards serving the community service organisations and the grand vision of opportunities that lie ahead of the Hindu community as part of multicultural Australia.
The tentative nomination for 2018 HOTA forum is Mukti Gupteshwar Mandir Minto. The The HOTA baton symbolising the HOTA’s vision of “people of all ages and gender working together” was handed over from Sri Venkateswara Temple to Shree Ram Krishna Temple.
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