BOMBAY - Thousands of devout Hindus dispersed across the globe find themselves just a click away from offering prayers at India's holiest temples.
Many overseas Indians are among the Hindus flocking to a Website based in the southern city of Madras to perform "puja," or worship, to seek special favours or mark auspicious days.
The Ram Navami festival, celebrated last Monday, marks the birthday of the god-king Lord Ram and the Website www.Saranam.com offered a "package" puja at $31.25 for simultaneous worship at special Ram temples in three south Indian cities.
"We have received 40 to 50 orders for the Ram Navami package mostly from NRIs based in the US," Mahesh Mohanan, co-founder of the Website, Saranam, or surrender, told Reuters by telephone from Madras.
Eighty percent of the site's clients are Indians living abroad -- or NRIs, non-resident Indians -- mainly in the United States, Britain, Singapore and Malaysia.
A growing number of European and Chinese followers of the Hindu religion are becoming regular clients with several buying puja sets made up of bells, lamps and camphor plates from the Website's online shop, Mohanan said.
Devotees can offer prayers at 130 temples across India.
These include the Kasi Viswanath temple in the holy city of Varanasi dedicated to Lord Shiva, the destroyer in the Hindu pantheon; the world's only temple to Brahma, the creator, in the western state of Rajasthan; the Siddhivinayak temple in Bombay dedicated to Lord Ganesha, who vanquishes all obstacles, and the Meenakshi temple in Madurai.
HANDPICKED PRAYER REPRESENTATIVES
The ritual is offered at the desired time on behalf of the client by carefully chosen representatives of Saranam.com.
"Pujas are very close to the heart of the people so we have to be very sure of the person who performs it," said Mohanan, a mechanical engineer.
He and his partners picked each of the 600 representatives, or "franchisees," including housewives, priests and shopkeepers, across the country.
They go to the temple, perform the puja, get a receipt from the temple and provide it to Saranam to send to the client.
Launched in January last year, the site began by offering prayers at just five temples but hopes to cover 2000 by the end of the year.
The idea for the Website came to one of the four founders, Karthik Janakiraman, a mechanical engineer based in California, when he missed an auspicious puja at his favourite temple.
"Karthik said that there must be a need like this among other Hindus living abroad and suggested starting a site for pujas," said Mohanan. The founders are engineers aged 25 to 27.
A client who decides to offer a puja fills in a form online to specify temple, time, occasion and request.
With no advertising or marketing the site has grown to the point where it now gets more than 8,000 hits and 10 to 15 orders a day, Mohanan said.
During their research the team learnt that India has 50,000 temples and countless deities.
Payment, ranging from $9.75 for a simple puja to $75 for an elaborate package, may be made by credit card, cheque or draft. Clients are billed after completion of the ritual.
BLESSINGS SHIPPED
The "prasad," or blessed offering handed out by a priest after the puja, including saffron, camphor or vermilion powder, is shipped to the client in handmade wooden boxes.
Judging by testimonials at the site, clients are thrilled by the opportunity to offer prayers for their relatives and on anniversaries, birthdays and weddings.
Mohanan recounts the experience of a U.S.-based Indian who sought divine aid last year to secure a "green card" or U.S. resident permit. He got it eight months later.
Businessman Abhay Mehta ordered pujas at the Siddhivinayak and Mahalaxmi temples in Bombay, the country's commerical capital, on Gudi Padwa, one of many Hindu New Year days, last Monday.
"It is not possible to perform pujas in two different temples simultaneously so I went through Saranam," said Mehta.
Saranam's founders, who got initial funding of four million rupees ($85,800), hope to break even by the end of this month and are bubbling with ideas to expand their service, unfazed by the dotcom bust.
Responding to queries from Indians who want to make donations to temples, Saranam plans tie-ups with needy temples. The founders are also keen to find temples devoted to the cure of specific ailments.
Many Hindus believe that sufferers can be cured by visiting
a temple named for their sickness.
"I would like to have a temple for every ailment on Saranam," said Mohanan, who was busy trying to find a temple for tuberculosis but happy to have found one in southern India for illnesses of the uterus.
21:31 04-04-01
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