I need some advice about how to
solve the legal problems in which the Hanuman Temple in Taos, New Mexico
has been mired. This Hanuman Temple is the oldest Hanuman Temple
in North America. It was founded by devotees of Shri Shri Shri 1008
Param Pujaya Sant Neem Karoli Baba Maharaj-ji.
Shri Neem Karoli Baba-ji's Ashram
and Hanuman Temple was established in the foothills of the Rocky
Mountains in the Southwestern part of the USA in Taos, New Mexico. In 1976,
a beautiful and very unique statue of flying Hanuman was carved from a
huge and magnificent piece of white marble in Jaipur and shipped to the
U.S.A.
It is a powerful murti and thousands
of Indian devotees and others come from around the world for Darshan. You
would find it a rather endearing locale. The most beautiful Hanuman Murti
in the world is housed in a little adobe hut, a mitthi ki jhompri, surrounded
by desert mountains.
We, the devotees of Shri Neem Karoli
Baba want to build a pakka home for Hanuman with a kirtan hall large enough
to accommodate all the people who come to sing bajans on Tuesday evenings
and other holidays. Every Saturday and Sunday hundreds of visitors
from India and NRIs come for Darshan. The presence of Hanuman in New Mexico
fills the spiritual needs of a large community, however, the temple in
which he is housed is sorely in need of repair and far too small for the
growing needs of the mandir, with so many Hindus coming to visit on a regular
basis. The current structure is not only katcha but inadequate. Since
it is attached to the kitchen the old building will be turned in
to a dining hall. Plans for the new Hanuman Mandir/Kirtan Hall are already
underway.
However.... It is very unfortunate
that our scarce financial resources were siphoned off by lawsuits
waged against us by the mayor's office. The city council tried to deprive
us of our right to use our property for our religious celebrations, even
though we are officially registered as a "non-profit church." The city
council tried to close us down. The legal costs were overwhelming, and
even now some of the issues are at a stalemate. But our little Hanuman
Mandir has scant funds to continue fighting city hall. The Mayor told our
lawyer if we had been a Catholic church, they wouldn't have tried to close
us down. Had we been a church, a mosque, or a synagogue there would have
been no lawsuits, no persecution. But because there is such little knowledge
about Hinduism in the USA, our little Hanuman Mandir had to fight the system
just to keep our doors open for Darshan. But with Hanuman's grace, and
hopefully some help from groups such as HICAD, we will persevere and I
am very sure that Hanuman will get His new kirtan hall one day soon!
What I am looking for are legal
avenues that we could pursue and lawyers who could help us, we really
need some pro-bono solutions to resolve the remaining legal problems.
The situation, as I understand it is this. We are being deprived the use
of our back acreage, though our initial petition included all 8 (eight)
acres as part of the "church" property. There was even an attempt by the
city council to say that there had been a dot in front of the eight ".8"
and therefore we had only applied originally to use point eight of the
acreage. Luckily one of our caretakers at that time went to the original
files in the country office and found that the dot was not on the
original. So you see the depths to which these people have stooped to deprive
us of our right to create a home for Hanuman ji... He already lives there...
come to visit anytime! We just need access to the whole property so that
we can park on the back acres, build a new Mandir, etc.
As far as I understand it, the case
went to the State supreme court, or some other esteemed august legal
body, who judged, as it were "in our favor" that it was all indeed ashram
property... but, for some reason, the good judge sent it back to the Town
of Taos to determine if we could use our back acreage for parking. Amazingly,
they again said no, that we couldn't use our back acres. But to take up
the case again would have meant that the legal fees would have begun again.
At one time we actually owed about $100,000 in legal fees and yet remarkably
we are still at a stand still in the case. We can not afford to incur more
legal fees. At the first of the year we still owed the lawyer approximately
$40,000 and we make a payment of $1000 EACH month. So whatever happens,
it needs to be by a lawyer concerned that this discriminatory case
is lingering. So I hope that HICAD can forward this to a legal team who
can look into the case and once and for all, invoking RIFRA or whatever,
free Hanuman-ji's land for His use.
I have to point out that this is
a small mandir that has no endowment or large sources of income... these
legal fees have really gotten us! But, in a sense they have hardly
gotten us anywhere.
That is why I would like you to
help me to make contact with lawyers who are willing to work to help Hindus
who are discriminated against or who have problems.
The Neem Karoli Baba Ashram and
Hanuman Mandir is now in the process of plannning to build a new Hanuman
Mandir and Kirtan Hall...we will need building permits and other interfaces
with the local city government. We need to clear up that old case that
was never totally resolved regarding the use of our back acres... and then,
we can move forward and build a new home for Shri Hanuman-ji at the Ashram
of Shri Neem Karoli Baba-ji in Taos, New Mexico. As mentioned this is the
oldest Hanuman Mandir in the USA.
If anyone knows about such legal
services available here in the USA, please put me in touch with them, so
that we can resolve this discriminatory situation once and for all.
Thanks!
RamRani
(Member of the Board of Directors
of the Shri Neem Karoli Baba-ji Ashram and
Hanuman Temple, Taos NM)
I look forward to hearing from you.
--
Yvette Claire Rosser
2403 Trafalgar Drive
Austin, TX 78723-4003 USA
