RELIGION / JOHN DART : Hindu Temple Will Take Over When Baptist Church Closes

After six years of worshiping in private homes, a group of 75 Hindu adults will soon begin regular services in Northridge--in a church that a Baptist pastor with a tiny flock vainly fought to keep from the buyers he called “pagan.”

With escrow on the $650,000 purchase set to close by Nov. 30, Hindu leaders said Friday that their dozen four-foot-tall marble statues of Hindu deities will come out of storage and be installed in the geodesic-dome church for services before year’s end.

It will be the second Hindu temple in the San Fernando Valley.

“This fulfills the dream of my late wife, who started holding services in people’s homes in 1989,” said Yag Dutt Kapil, president of the group officially called the Hindu Temple Society, California.

The main building, a geodesic dome, is now the Valley View Baptist Church.

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The Rev. Arthur Houk, pastor of that church, earlier this year launched a nationwide letter-writing campaign within the Conservative Baptist Assn., trying to put pressure on the denomination’s regional headquarters not to sell the property.

However, the dwindling congregation--now down to 10 people--had deeded the property to the church’s district headquarters two years ago, and the headquarters said it needed the money a sale would bring. Houk sued, but a Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Friday declined to block the sale.

Houk said Friday that the Rev. John Y. Lee, a Korean pastor renting another building on the property, will be moving out before Thanksgiving. Thus, he said, the last services in that building for a small Korean congregation and Houk’s handful of members will be on Nov. 19.

“We did not want [the property] to be sold to anyone,” Houk said Friday, noting that he remains disappointed that the church would now be converted into a Hindu temple.

“There will be a pagan practice where the Gospel used to be preached,” he complained.

Countered Bal K. Sarad, vice president of the Hindu temple: “I was surprised that a professional priest would use any language like that toward any religion. God is one; if we did not believe in God, we would not be saying our prayers.”

“Hinduism uses various statues and images, but they are actually manifestations of the same Supreme Power,” said Sarad, a textile engineer who lives in Granada Hills.

The Hindu congregation “feels lucky” that the building was already a religious site, Sarad said. “To us, it is a sacred place that will continue to be used for a sacred cause.”

Tens of thousands of Hindus live in Southern California, but permanent temples are few and far between. Only 12 are listed in a recently published directory of the region-wide Federation of Hindu Assns., based in Artesia.

The new temple, at 18700 Roscoe Blvd., will be only the second permanent site in the San Fernando Valley, following the opening in 1991 of the small Hindu Temple and Indian Cultural Center in Chatsworth. Once the pews are removed (Hindus sit on the floor for worship), the new temple is expected to comfortably accommodate about 200 people.

Many Hindus travel great distances for prayers at the elegant Sri Venkateshwara Temple on Las Virgenes Canyon Road south of Calabasas. Sarad said, however, that it is inconvenient for families to visit that temple very often.

“Most families dedicate a small area in their house for worship,” said Sarad, indicating that the lack of a temple doesn’t deter Hindus from worship. “But we want to have social and cultural gatherings also, and our long-term goal is to have a library and a full-time priest.”

The shrine in the Northridge home of Kapil, the 62-year-old president of the Hindu congregation, is especially ornate, containing small, marble statues of 15 gods and goddesses.

“Ten of them were broken in the earthquake last year, and I’ve just finished replacing them,” Kapil said. “Even if a small finger is broken, we cannot use the deity for praying.”

Kapil also has a life-size statue of his wife in his home. Madhu, or Honey, as she was known to friends, died in 1991. She was instrumental in organizing worship ceremonies in homes of Hindus in the Valley, Kapil said.

In late 1989, Sarad obtained papers for the temple society as a nonprofit corporation and the Kapils began a building fund. As of the start of November, the fund had $295,066.10. “I keep track of every penny,” Kapil said.

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Kapil has taken the group’s worship ceremonies to the homes of families throughout Southern California. For instance, the service tonight is in Fontana. Upcoming services will be held in Canoga Park, Cerritos, Bellflower and Yucca Valley.

“Everybody likes our performance--just as people like Michael Jackson,” Kapil said, referring to their singing of religious songs and leading of prayers.

All Hindus, regardless of their sect or favorite deities, will be welcome at the new facility, said Kapil.

Kapil’s family and friends specialize in prayers to Jai Mata, the many-handed goddess also known as Durga Mata, who, Kapil said, represents the power of the Absolute. But prayers are also said to Ganesha, the popular elephant deity, and other gods.

Asked about reports in September of milk disappearing when offered to statues of Ganesha at the Chatsworth temple and other Hindu temples around the world, as if the statues were drinking it, Sarad said he would not discount the possibility but that he has not been curious himself.

“We make offerings to God of milk, fruit, flowers--all sorts of things,” Sarad said. “But a true devotee never puts his God to the test. I firmly believe that if you have offered the gift, God has accepted it. You don’t need to look into the plate to see if it is empty.”