The Goddess Lives in Upstate New York provides an engaging and accessible portrait of a thriving Hindu temple in Rush, New York, foregrounding the ethos of its charismatic founder through a thoughtful discussion of key topics, including the nature of the Goddess and her worship, the origins and genesis of the temple, tradition and innovation in Hinduism, devotees' participation and aspirations, and the challenges of establishing a historical religion new to the American context. Although the “Rush temple” (Sri Rajarajeswari Peetham, http://www.srividya.org) is in many ways not representative of Hindu temples in the United States and Canada, in Corinne G. Dempsey's skillful rendering, especially her fulsome yet judicious use of numerous stories from the temple's founder and devotees, this monograph serves as an enthusiastic introduction to the methods and meanings of worship in Hinduism and diaspora Hindu identity.
The organizing image of Dempsey's narrative is that of unexpected intersections: “I emphasize junctures and interrelationships—between miraculous and scientific worldviews [part I, which focuses on the Goddess], nonconventional and conventional practices [part II, which focuses on the founder], and domestic and foreign sensibilities [part III, which focuses on the devotees]—largely because they provide a good entrée into exploring the temple's unique spirit” (p. 9). Dempsey appeals to scholarship on sacred intersections to suggest that such encounters are ambivalent, involving the potential for both miracles and frustrations. Through this lens, she views the temple and its traditions as “sites of potent yet precarious intersections” (p. 10). This is a helpful organizing image for much of the material, although it has its limitations, primarily in part I and the conclusion, as I discuss later.
Parts II and III demonstrate considerable strength in using unexpected intersections to illuminate the life and works of the temple's founder and guru, as well as the establishment of and practices at the temple. The central concern of the three chapters of part II is to explore both the innovation and the traditionalism of the temple's founder, a Tamil man originally from Sri Lanka who is referred to by the respectful title “Aiya.” The brief narrative of Aiya's spiritual biography foregrounds interesting juxtapositions, such as his identity as a Marxist in his youth and his spiritual awakening at his encounter with the Goddess in 1964 at age twenty; a priest's refusal to teach him a hymn of the Goddess because Aiya was not a Brahman, then Aiya's correcting that priest's chanting after learning the hymn from an electrical engineer in Zambia; and Aiya finally meeting his guru, a professor of nuclear physics, who would initiate him.
His unconventional path has influenced his practice, which controversially transgresses traditional boundaries. For example, Aiya translated secret Sanskrit liturgies to the Goddess into Tamil, and then published and distributed them to serious though nontraditional devotees. In addition, his Rush temple is open to anyone, and women, Euro-Americans, and Indians from any caste are eligible to perform all of the temple rituals. Young members of the Indian diaspora are impressed by Aiya's nonjudgmental approach, as he explains everything about the rituals to them, in contrast to their experiences at other temples. A “balance” to the unconventionality is Aiya's insistence on discipline, including initiation as well as impeccable attention to detail in performing the many rituals to the Goddess.
The three chapters in part III explore the establishment of the Rush temple on land that has sacred meaning in terms of Hindu ideals (a river, the presence of animals) and in terms of U.S. history (the Second Great Awakening), interactions with bigoted neighbors and with supportive neighbors, and profiles of Indian- and Euro-American devotees who have made the temple their “home.” Dempsey artfully discusses these arenas as numerous sites for meaningful encounters across traditions, and a few instances in which mutual understanding seems not possible. Throughout the discussion, the voices of the guru, neighbors, and devotees provide a rich complement to Dempsey's insights.
The focus of part I is miracles, though miracle stories permeate the book. It is admirable that the author seeks to present Aiya's central emphasis on the Goddess's miracles as a coherent and viable religious worldview. However, it is my view that Dempsey's discussion at times oversteps its own limits. Part of the problem is that she tends to caricature opposing arguments; thus, someone who does not believe in miracles might think of those who do as “crazy” (pp. 15, 16, 32), and someone who does believe in miracles might think of those who do not as “spiritual fuddy-duddies” (p. 65), but these labels do not capture the issues at stake in the respective worldviews. Historical views on miracles are important (pp. 64–65), but more relevant might be a discussion of recent controversies in the United States over the teaching of “intelligent design” in science classrooms alongside evolution and their implications. Nor can a discourse on miracles simply characterize the scholarly process. Aiya may feel that “one of the greatest impediments to encountering divinity is too much education” (p. 210), but for me, it does not follow from this that “activities such as researching, writing, and reading books may ultimately obscure the Moment [of religious experience]” (p. 214). The scholarly process—ethnography, archival research, writing, teaching, and so on—has its own moments of insight that may or may not share family resemblances with those of religious experience. A careful, scholarly analysis of this comparison—one that complicates the opposition between intellect and emotion in the way in which this book questions many other traditional oppositions—would have been welcome in this fine study.
