New, bigger home and new priest with ‘extraordinary’ past for the Hindu Temple of Modesto
The Hindu Temple of Modesto has moved from Tully Road into a bigger home on College Avenue. It also has a new priest, who comes with an impressive background — including nearly a decade of solitary meditation in a mountain cave.
Harish Mehra, president of the Hindu Temple and Community Center of Modesto and a former professor at Stanislaus State University, said the $1.55 million purchase of the property was possible through donations from the community.
“It doesn’t belong to any person,” said Vidhu Mehra, Harish Mehra’s wife and a trustee of the temple. “It belongs to the community and everybody gave a donation and fundraised – that’s how we are managing.”
Priest Naveen Sharma, who arrived Jan. 5, had an “extraordinary” route to becoming a priest at the Hindu Temple of Modesto, Vidhu Mehra said. He came from India after spending eight and a half years of his life living in a cave alone in the mountains, meditating and eating fruit and drinking river water.
Mehra, who helped translate for Sharma, said that during his isolation, he gained so much from meditation that he had no desires left. Sharma is responsible for adorning the gods, singing and giving speeches, and teaching yoga and dance.
Mehra said that prior to moving to the former home of the College Avenue United Church of Christ, the temple was in an approximately 1,200-square-foot building next to Landmark Missionary Baptist Church on Tully.
“It’s very exciting because now we have so much room,” she said. “Before it was difficult to manage.”
She said their original dream was to build the temple at their Tully Road location, but after the COVID lockdown mortgage rate increases were too expensive, so they started looking for another place.
“Luckily, God was watching or something,” she said. “We got a phone call that this building is being sold.”
The temple is 1.75 acres and consists of five buildings including a commercial kitchen, living quarters for the temple priest, a “cafe” that continues to be used for Al-Anon meetings on Fridays, a place for worship and an area for yoga and meditation.
The property also has an attached preschool, which was closed after the sale. Mehra said she wants to get that reopened. “We are looking for someone who can run the school there,” she said.
Around 50 families regularly worship at the temple, coming from Modesto, Turlock and as far as Merced. Up to 150 families attend for weddings and other special occasions.
Harish Mehra hopes to see more families join. He said temple attendance was limited by the smaller location. “Some people were not really comfortable coming to that small house,” he said. “Now we will be in a position to attract more people here.”
There are two other Hindu temples in Modesto, one on Coffee Road and another on Claus Road.
Over 2,700 people in Stanislaus County — 0.7% of the population — practiced Hinduism in 2023, according to the Public Religion Research Institute. Stanislaus abuts Santa Clara County, where 3.2% of the population practices the Hindu faith. That’s the highest percentage of practicing Hindus in the state, according to the 2023 PRRI Census of American Religion.
Hinduism is the third largest religion in the world, most of the people who practice are from India, Nepal or Mauritius off the southeast coast of Africa. People who practice Hinduism believe that people who die are reincarnated to live again and that God presents themselves in many different forms, each with their own temperament and purpose.
The College Avenue United Church of Christ, which sold the property to the Hindu temple, moved in November to Woodland Avenue, where it shares a space with the Church of the Brethren.
“They were so nice,” Vidhu Mehra said. “We work really well with each other, even now.”
The church responded in an email that they did not know who would buy the property, but it was important that the buyers be good stewards of the location. “We are pleased that the Modesto Hindu Temple purchased the property and are making it their new home.”
Mehra said when she started looking for a place of worship in Modesto in 1990, she had a much less warm welcome. The temple bought a property on Standiford Avenue where it wanted to make a permanent home. But the neighbors made that hard, so the temple left after 10 years.
“We had some red lights, so they were saying, ‘Oh, they have red lights, they’re running a prostitution there,’” she said.
Red lights are important to the Hindu faith for weddings and special occasions and are considered a sign of good fortune.
She also said that people complained of smells and sent their kids in to see what they were doing during the decade they were at that location. “That was kind of hard,” she said.
The temple opened on Nov. 10 but they expect the temple to take about a year to be fully complete. Mehra said they are working with an architect in India who is helping them convert the churchlike atmosphere to something more appropriate for a Hindu temple.
“This is our main expense,” she said.
They are ordering marble statues from India as well as adorned pillars, chandeliers and a stage so people can sit in a semicircle. They will also install carpet for worshippers since they take their shoes off and the floor is cold.
Harish Mehra said they will be keeping some of the character of the original building, such as the labyrinth that is outside of the main building. “I think it’s nice,” he said.
Scheduled worship at the temple is on Tuesdays at 5:30 p.m. and Sundays at 11 a.m. in the morning. The temple itself is open every day.
This story was originally published January 9, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
