Durga Temple of Virginia — Attraction in Virginia

Being a nurse, I have had many emotional experiences. I must say that the hurt that I felt this evening was one of the most piercing ones. After working over 14 hours, I came home, got 1 hour of rest and then accompanied my husband to the Durga Temple.We were so excited and looked forward to visiting the temple. In fact, we drove from Camp Springs ,MD to Lorton, VA. After arriving, my husband and I sat down and listened to one of the Pujari speak. As he spoke, another Pujari went around the room and prayed over each person. I noticed the Pujari skipped and went around my husband and I. I assumed that it was an innocent mistake until a woman kindly walked up to him and informed him that he missed me and my husband. He look back at us and proceeded to walk away. I knew right then that his issue was with me, being that I am African American. What truly hurt me the most, was the fact that he denied my husband who is North Indian, the prayer that he so desperately desired. I felt his pain and disappointment. My heart became so heavy that I could mot hold back my tears. A temple is sacred place of refuge where you should not feel more wounded after you leave than when you arrived.I have always viewed a temple or church as a spiritual hospitals. And I have always left feeling refreshed. I am saddened to say that we felt the direct opposite after leaving the Durga Temple...

I give 5 stars to sunderkand in this temple. However, I am disappointed with the Shiva temple with the Kannadiga priest here. I had brought Prasadam(coconut rice) for all and gave it to priest after which some volunteer kept it out for all. In the meanwhile when we were getting blessings and priest was giving banana, he skipped my child who was behind me and waved his hand to go without any banana. My child born and raised in US didn't like this, I have never seen such rude behavior. The priest must understand all devotees support the temple in some way, it is wrong to have partiality and have favorites. Also, some other volunteer went overboard in telling others (his acquaintances) to take prasadam, while we are happy our contribution helped that day -but the volunteer (guy with curly hair,brown and glasses) was clueless that we were the contributors that day and never asked us to take our cooked-prasadam. We just left the Prasadam there so more devotees could have it all but learnt a lesson that false bhaktas use these sacred places for their control with no real devotion. If these Rudrams are going to be controlled by few actors who display false bhakti and if the kannada priest is going to have favorites-it is something the temple management should be concerned about as other devotees...

To start, 5-stars for the hall and temple construct itself. It’s a wonderful sacred space. We’ve generally had normal experiences in the past, but when my son was born we brought him to get a simple, quick blessing - nothing time-consuming or elaborate. When we got the the priest, he hand-waved for us to wait while he was talking to some folks. Then some of his friends came in and he started chatting with them, he blessed their group and the people they brought with them. We were waiting directly in front of him, and he waved for us to continue waiting. He grabbed a few puja items and then left the area to sit with a large group that was walking in and started doing bhajans with them.

It was my son’s first time in a temple, and he never got blessings because the priest deliberately ignored him to favor his friends and regulars. A priest’s favoritism should not be a contingency for receiving blessings, especially with regard...