Yogesh Sharma

Lawrenceville

Yogesh Sharma founded Lawrenceville’s Radha Krishna Temple, “one of the oldest Hindu religious and cultural centers in Central New Jersey,” in 2002, according to its website.

Located at 357 Lawrence Station Road, the temple provides “Hindu and Vedic services, poojas, and ceremonies,” having expanded from one room to four buildings as the years progressed.

Sharma details that while she started the sacred space to assist priests and others in need, the temple only came to be because another living being close to her needed help—after neighborhood complaints about her dog’s barking reached the courtroom, a judge ordered its euthanization.

“I started going to another temple to pray for his life,” she recalled. “There, I met a priest who was in trouble in that temple. He asked me to help him out, and after a few days, he asked me to start a new temple where he [could] get his green card or visa, but I said, ‘Well, we don’t know anything about the temple, and so therefore we cannot do it,’” she explained.

“But he tried to convince me that, no, he will ‘take care of everything’ and ‘it will be a great thing for [the community].’”

Sharma shared that she and her husband did not have the background to run a temple, but the priest insisted, beginning a pattern of broken promises from people she assumed to be “very honest and honorable people” due to their religious backgrounds.

Although they were initially shocked to encounter the opposite, the Sharmas built the place of worship together and recruited those of the faith who kept their word.

In addition to having grown the Radha Krishna Temple from these uncertain beginnings, Bora commented that Sharma “is just a force of nature and has also overcome so many challenges in her life.”

“My dog was saved with my prayers, and [the] community is very happy with that little temple,” Sharma reflected, noting that now, “We are like one big, huge family. We all love each other in that temple and try to do the best for the community.”

Sharma stated that in the future, she hopes to bring in even more priests, particularly Indian women—a new addition for most temples—as part of her mission to keep growing the community at Radha Krishna.

Sharma’s objects are “a silk sari and figurines of Rama and Sita,” the latter being two figures from the Sanskrit epic poem “Ramayana” who are incarnations of the Hindu gods Vishnu and Lakshmi

As the most common adaptation of the story goes, Rama rescued his wife, Sita,

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Sharma loaned GFS a pair of figurines depicting Rama and Sita, the avatars of Hindu deities Vishnu and Lakshmi, above, while Panoli chose her prayer book and photo card of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, a “central figure” in her Baha’i faith and the son of its founder, Bahá’u’lláh, pictured on the following page.

The tale is a classic testament to the triumph of light over darkness, or good over evil, as conveyed through holiday legend.

Shoba Panoli Pennington

In her interview, Shoba Panoli introduces herself as “a Malaysian American of Sri Lankan and Indian heritage” who dreamed of settling down in Australia like her aunts but would end up in the United States as the result of an unexpected romance.

“But life sometimes has surprising twists, and you end up in a different place,” she said, sharing how their paths first crossed. “One day I was bored, and I was surfing the web, trying to look up the place that my dad was visiting in India. As I was reading up on Kerala, I stumbled upon a chat room, and there were only a handful of individuals in that room.”

“A guy said hello to me, and we started a small conversation, and he was attracted to my Sri Lankan Malayali background, and he found that a bit unique since he hasn’t met anyone with that background; little did I know that this would be the guy that I would one day get married to.”

Even when Panoli moved to Switzerland, she “continued chatting every day” with him, exchanging “hundreds of emails” that the two never deleted and still treasure

See Local Voices, Page 10 today.

“After finally chatting for about two years, we decided to meet face-to-face, so I flew to New York to meet him, and as the plane was touching down, I was feeling very nervous, and I was thinking to myself, ‘What if everything that he’s told me was a big lie?’ ‘What if he was a fake?’” Panoli said. This worry escalated as she spent over an hour searching for his face among the airport crowd, unable to find the man she was supposed to meet until Panoli spotted him—dressed in the exact outfit he had described to her—and immediately recognized her future husband.

“I was in the United States for only a week, and he took me places; we saw a lot of things, and he took me to the top of the Empire State Building and asked me to marry him,” she remembered fondly.

“I believe this was fate. If my dad wasn’t visiting India, I wouldn’t have gone online that day trying to look up the place that he was visiting, and we’ve been married for 23 years and have two wonderful boys.”

Panoli, characterized by Bora as a mother with “a very tender, sweet family,” received her name, meaning “light,” from her great-grandfather.

Panoli’s object is a prayer book and photo card of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, an important figure to her as a lifelong member of the Baha’i Faith.

“‘Abdu’l-Bahá is the master of the Baha’i faith, and he showed us how a Baha’i should live his life. I always carry that picture with me to remind myself of how a Baha’i should act,” Panoli explained in the audio interview.

Panoli added that prayer has always been an “important component” of her life, connecting her with God and guidance, and she has had this book for at least 15 to 20 years, which contains prayers for a variety of purposes and applications.

On the exhibit page for “Local Voices,” Panoli said that the following quote from the founder of the Baha’i Faith, Bahá’u’lláh, is always an inspiration for her:

“Do not be content with showing friendship in words alone; let your heart burn with loving kindness for all who may cross your path.”

***

“Local Voices: Memories, Stories, and Portraits” runs through January 7, 2024, in the Domestic Arts Building at the Grounds for Sculpture, 80 Sculptors Way, Hamilton.

For more information, call 609-586-0616 or visit www.groundsforsculpture.org

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