PRIEST SERVICES

The Temple’s two priests, Sharmaji and Shastriji, are available to perform religious rituals in your home, your business place, or at the Temple. The priests and the Board of Trustees are committed to providing these services in a manner that best meets your needs as well as maintains the sanctity, consistency, and effectiveness of these services. To meet these goals, the Board has established the following guidelines for providing priest services.

1. Priest Services are handled on a first-come first-served basis. Therefore, please call and reserve your Services for your function as soon as you are able. We strongly recommend that you call the priests well ahead of your event in order to avoid any scheduling conflict (contact numbers attached).

2. Depending on the location and event the priest services charges could include:

• Honorarium/dakshina for performing religious rituals (services).

Note: The suggested minimum honorarium/dakshina for various services are listed in the attached Table.  

• Travel cost based on distance (from and to Temple - rate per mile)
• Travel cost based on time (from and to Temple - rate per hour)

3. Although rare, on occasion, the priest may require overnight stay. In such a case, all costs of accommodations should be covered and paid by the devotee.

4. All charges must be paid by check. Please make check payable to “Bharatiya Temple of Lansing” with the notation “Priest Services” on the memo line of the check.

5. The rate per mile is decided based on prevailing rates published by IRS. Currently, the rate per mile is 0.48 cents. The cost of priest time to drive to your place and back will be at the rate of $10 (ten dollars) per hour. 

6. The Board does not require dakshina/honorarium in addition to the published rates for these services. Based on their contracts the priests get up to 25% of the priest services as additional remuneration.

7. After the religious rituals, please make sure that the priests are allowed to return to the Temple in a reasonable time. 

If you have any questions, please contact Board member Mrs. Suseela Umakanth or either of the priests.

Priest Services – 2008 Schedule & Contacts

Services	At Temple		Beyond Temple Premises/ In-home
	Member	Non-Member	Member	Non-Member
Archana	$ 11	$ 21
Ganapati Puja	$ 31	$ 51	$ 51	$ 101
Car Puja	$ 31	$ 51	$ 101	$ 151
Abhishekam	$ 51	$ 101	$ 125	$ 151
Satyanarayana Puja Poornima Day (Only) Maha Satyanarayana Puja (Guru Poornima)	$ 101 $ 51 $ 101	$ 151 $ 51 $ 101	$ 125	$ 151
Griha Pravesh			$ 125	$ 151
Homa / Havan	$ 101	$ 151	$ 125	$ 151
Navagraha Puja	$ 101	$ 151	$ 125	$ 151
Sanskaras	$ 101	$ 151	$ 125	$ 151
Wedding	$ 251	$ 351	$ 401	$ 501

Note: Archana and Car Puja are considered temple-provided services.

Contact	Home Phone	Mobile Phone
Sri Kannan Sharma	517.339.5003	517.974.9675
Sri Surendra Bhardwaj	517.575.0888	517.944.2100
Sunit Patke	517-349-5576	NA