Morgantown Hindu Religious & Cultural Center Hours:
We invite you, your family, and loved ones to visit our temple. We are open Sundays at 10 AM for Ganesh Puja followed by Balavihar at 11:30. We are open Tuesdays at 7:00 for Hanuman Chalisa. Special events are listed in the table.
HRCC’s objectives are to:
Provide a place of worship by operating a temple dedicated to all Hindu and Hindu-origin deities
Promote spiritual, cultural, civic, and social improvement
Facilitate cultural education
Provide a channel for humanitarian efforts targeted towards the Greater Morgantown area and the state of West Virginia
The HRCC continuously throbs with a variety of character-building, philanthropic and inspiring activities. It charges people with a spirit of selfless service, to live in tune with God and in harmony with humanity.The weekly spiritual assemblies, cultural programs and festival celebrations reinforce character and faith in the youth, thus channeling their energy and enthusiasm towards constructive purposes. Our major activities are described below.
Religious and Cultural:
The temple is the focus of all major religious and cultural events. We have a full calendar which is continually being refined as our capacity to hold them grows and our membership interest grows. The temple is open currently on Tuesday evenings for Hanuman Chalisa and on Sunday mornings for regular prayer services. Special pujas are held during major festivals. These include, among others, Sankranti, Ram Navami Puja, Maha Shivaratri, Holi, Krishnastami, Ganesh Puja and Diwali(Lakshmi Puja). These events provide a great opportunity for all of us to get together and to support the HRCC by becoming an active member. Usually the celebrations are followed by a sumptuous dinner that displays various Indian cuisines.
Educational:
Our young generation and the young at heart need an avenue to explore the philosophical underpinnings of our faith. Our vision is to conduct activities that provide our members and their children augmentation of their education and knowledge about our culture and heritage. We intend to provide these activities free of cost to our members, and nominal cost to others. Our main educational agenda items are to:
Conduct Bala Vihar, an education program for our children. The education program, broadly based on the Chinmaya Mission curriculum, covers a broad range of topics that includes religious prayer recitations, religious, cultural, and historical aspects.
Offer a variety of course offerings ranging from language skills (Hindi, Telugu, Gujarati etc.), arts, yoga, dance and music (Bharatanatyam, Carnatic music etc).
Organize religious discourses by inviting learned and renowned speakers to the Morgantown area when opportunity arises.
Humanitarian
We aim to promote charitable giving and to make it a central pillar of leading a moral and religious life for our members. Over the years we have sponsored a number of charitable events.
For the past several years we have sponsored the Angel Tree program during Christmas where gifts are donated to less fortunate kids in our city. Children also actively participate in this activity by helping us wrap the gifts.
The marquee event that HRCC is known for is the annual Gandhi Day Walkathon. We have sponsored it for eight years in a row and last year we added a 5K run as well. The event raises donations which are distributed to local charities fulfilling our obligations to our local community.