New Hindu Temple in Texas Sets Guinness World Record with 24-hour Chant

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A newly opened Hindu Temple in Texas, Karya Siddhi Hanuman Temple, set a Guinness World Record when over 500 people chanted for 24 hours.

The Karya Siddhi Hanuman Temple has only been open for a couple of weeks, but those few weeks have already landed them in the record books.

The Guinness Book of Records, that is.

The Hindu Temple based in Frisco, Texas has only been open since July 23rd, but the chanting marathon its visitors engaged in on August 1st made the temple a record breaker, the Huffington Post reports.   

Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji, the spiritual leader of the temple, led over 800 people in a 24-hour chant.  The group took a five-minute break every hour, and when all was said and done, only 582 chanters lasted the entire time.

The marathon, which was held in the 34,000 square foot building and live casted around the world, was officially timed at 24 hours, 10 minutes and 8 seconds.

The worshippers, who were as young as 20 and as old as 85, chanted the Hanuman Chalisa, which is hymn devoted to the Hindu god, Hanuman.

Temple chairman Prakasa Velagapudi said that Hanuman was known for his “unwavering faith” to Lord Rama, and that the chanters tried to emulate that faith during their chant marathon.

Velagapudi also said that this event was much more than just trying to set a world record.  “The more we chant, the more energy we create”. and this energy, felt as “vibrations” can help promote world peace

Furthermore, he said that chanting isn’t only good for the participants, but also “the community,” and even “the trees and the animals”.

Chanting for world records is not new to Swamiji. He recently set another record by leading almost 130,000 people in an hour-long chant for world peace.

While the experience sounds exhausting, Velagapudi believes that the participants would have kept going beyond the 24 hours. “Everyone felt they wished it did not end,” he said.

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