Shirdi Sai Baba Temple for the Statesman

Continuing in my un-official faith beat, I was sent to the opening of the Shirdi Sai Baba Temple in Cedar Park, Texas.  The temple began in 2008 with a few hundred people and services were held in a temporary building in a shopping center.  Their new facility is a beautiful addition to the skyline.  You can read Joshunda Sanders account here.

Nalini Rao, left, watches a blessing ritual in front of the new Shirdi Sai Baba Temple in Cedar Park, Texas on Friday March, 19, 2010.  Ramish Uppala holds his son Viswaved, 5, during a blessing ceremony.  Several hundred devotees came to Friday's events with up to five thousand expected on Sunday.

    

Pots, called Kalishes, left, will hold holy water for purification rituals. A statue of Sai Baba of Shiridi, right, is blindfolded before the opening of the new temple in Cedar Park, Texas. The Indian guru was regarded by both Hindu and Muslim followers as a saint.

Raj Gadde, center, a Sai devotee, puts the finishing touches on a ceremonial tent outside the Shirdi Sai Baba Temple of Austin in Cedar Park, Texas. 

A devotee in the new meditation room.

Shriya Raghunadth, 2, peers out from her mother's sari at the Shirdi Sai Baba Temple of Austin in Cedar Park, Texas.