The new BPAS Mandir in Taylor is an important meeting place for Canberra’s growing Hindu population. It was the personal sacrifices from those within the community that have made this dream a reality.
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00:00When the Shah family moved to Gungahlin from Perth three years ago, living near the planned
00:07BAPS Mandir was a priority, so was raising money for the temple's construction.
00:13So last year, when I was in year 11, I got two jobs.
00:18So the first one I applied to was the swim instructor at Aquatots.
00:22I was working there and donating 100% of my salary, and my tutoring teacher offered me
00:28a job at his place, and I accepted that as well.
00:31Ashish donated the bonus he received when he got a new job.
00:35That was a surplus fund for me.
00:37Me and my wife decided that we should be donating this because it will be helpful for our community.
00:44The temple tells many more tales of sacrifice.
00:47Tejas recruited a dozen people to take on commercial office cleaning contracts.
00:51We did this project for eight months.
00:54We contributed about 1800 hours into the project, and raised about $26,700 for the construction
01:03of the mandir.
01:04And this room was built from money raised by young people like Pankti, who made $6,000
01:09selling cupcakes.
01:10We started selling in front of shops in Emery and Gungahlin, which is our local.
01:16A lot of people who come by, they see young people selling the cupcakes, selling cookies.
01:21They ask us questions like, what are you doing this for?
01:24And then we give a really good answer that we have our temple building, which is like
01:29our home.
01:30The multi-million dollar temple was completed earlier this year.
01:33It was very overwhelming to see the temple finally being built, and it felt good to know
01:39that I had a part in it as well, so it felt really important to me.
01:43When I moved here, I had a bit of worry that there is no temple in Canberra, but when I
01:49heard the news that the temple is being built, and now me with my kid and my family can attend
01:54the temple every day, it's a great feeling.
01:57Money well spent on a place that connects so many in this community.