The Hindu Temple and Cultural Society of USA was founded in September 1989. The goal was twofold: to provide a place of worship and spirituality for the Hindu community and those with an interest in Hinduism, and to promote Hindu religion, traditions, culture and Indian Languages and thus to serve the needs of our growing Hindu community.
With the blessings of Lord Sri Venkateswara, HTCS of USA Inc. humbly acquired property in Bridgewater, NJ with a building of 9,800 sq. ft., and opened the Temple in February 1992. Grand opening ceremonies were conducted to formally open the temple to the public, and an election and by-laws committee was formed to modify the existing by-laws of the organization.
After procuring adjacent properties, we went on to build an authentic, Traditional Hindu Temple. Construction began in May of 1996. We were blessed enough to have His Holiness Sri Sri Tridandi Chinna Ramanuja Jeeyar Swamiji perform pancha sila puja on the north-east corner of the temple that summer. Over the next two years, we went on to build our traditional temple of 11,000 sq. ft. with a basement of the same size. In the summer of 1998, Vigraha Prathistha and Kubhabhishekam were performed by Sri Sri Tridandi Chinna Ramanuja Jeeyar Swamiji with the support of all members, donors, devotees and volunteers, and with the blessings of Lord Venkateswara.
With the additional properties acquired by our organization, we went on to build living quarters for our priests. With such a dedicated and talented group of priests, we are so humbled and proud to provide such living arrangements for the priests and their families, and have them as members of our Temple community.
Despite having a traditional temple, we lacked an authentic Yagashala. The size of our facility had also become inadequate to accommodate the needs of the community. Therefore, in 2013 we decided to further develop the Temple. We were able to expand our facility by about 9, 000 sq. ft. with authentic Yagashala and a basement for storage, and opened these expansions to our devotees in June 2015. Today, our Temple is one of the biggest Temples in the USA, serving the needs of the community at large with thousands of devotees visiting every week.
For the Hindu community, culture and Religion go hand in hand. So to fulfill the commitment of this organization, the construction of a cultural center was taken up in 2014. This Cultural center will have a 600 seat capacity auditorium, a Banquet hall, numerous class rooms and huge verandas surrounding both the 1st and 2nd floors. The new cultural center scheduled to be completed in Summer of 2017, and all cultural activities can be held within the Temple premises. None of this would be possible without the kindness and support of our devotees, donors, members and all volunteers.
This organization began as a modest way to serve and support our Hindu Temple and has become an internationally recognized part of the Hindu Community. This is all because of the hard work and commitment of our volunteers and devotees, and the blessings of Lord Sri Venkateswara.