{"id":15596,"date":"2016-08-10T15:43:46","date_gmt":"2016-08-10T10:13:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globalpress.hinduismnow.org?p=15593&amp;preview_id=15593"},"modified":"2016-08-10T15:43:46","modified_gmt":"2016-08-10T10:13:46","slug":"secaucus-street-named-after-hindu-leader-swamibapa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/?p=15596","title":{"rendered":"Secaucus Street Named After Hindu Leader Swamibapa"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-21000\">The Swaminarayan Temple of Secaucus, New Jersey, celebrated its 15th anniversary last week with hundreds of followers, and members from the local Indian-American community attending the Aug. 6-7 event.<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The celebrations Aug. 6 kicked off with a flash mob dance to welcome Acharya Swami and also commemorate the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Smruti Mandir, an all-marble, hand- carved temple located in Ghodasar, India. The religious discourses, prayer services, a youth skit, and religious hymns were also part of the first-day celebrations.<\/p>\n<p>The Aug. 7 program commenced with religious discourses as well as a grand annkut, a large offering of food. Muktjeevan Swamibapa Pipe Band escorted Acharya Swami, Secaucus Mayor Michael Gonnelli, Secaucus Councilman Rob Constantino, Secaucus Councilwoman Susan Pirro, and Hudson County Sheriff Frank Schillari to the entrance of the temple for the opening of Penhorn Avenue which has been renamed \u2018Swamibapa Way\u2019 to honor Muktajeevan Swamibapa, the religious leader who was the first to bring the Swaminarayan sect to the United States in the late 1970s.<a href=\"http:\/\/1tkhsn2zbchu2r1k0534elcv.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/SWamibapa-1-e1470767229594.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-21001\" src=\"http:\/\/1tkhsn2zbchu2r1k0534elcv.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/SWamibapa-1-e1470767229594-683x1024.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"450\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Balloons and white doves were also released to commemorate the occasion.<\/p>\n<p>The program continued in the temple\u2019s community hall, with over 500 individuals in attendance. The Swaminarayan Gadi Sansthan donated $1,000 to the Secaucus Fire Department and $1,000 to the township\u2019s office of emergency management. Acharya Swami delivered a sermon preaching peace, love, devotion, and unity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnyone who travels on Swamibapa Way will be on their way towards salvation,\u201d he said. \u201cAll of this devotional love that we practice should be done selflessly. Our talents are given to us by the Lord as vehicles of devotion\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>The two-day festival featured religious discourses about peace and unity, performances by North America\u2019s First Indian American Pipe Band \u2013 Swamibapa Pipe Band, cultural concert and skit, traditional Indian feasts, and more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Swaminarayan Temple of Secaucus, New Jersey, celebrated its 15th anniversary last week with hundreds of followers, and members from the local Indian-American community attending the Aug. 6-7 event. &nbsp; The celebrations Aug. 6 kicked off with a flash mob dance to welcome Acharya Swami and also commemorate the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Smruti [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[1153,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15596"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15596\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}