Inauguration of the Shri Annapurnadevi Temple in Durban (South Africa)

Prime Minister Modi had presented an AshtaLakshmi Kalash to the temple as a gift.

Durban (South Africa) : Swami Abhedananda Saraswati, the spiritual head of Chinmaya Mission in South Africa, inaugurated the Shri Annapurnadevi Temple in the city. The Shri Annapurnadevi Temple is the world’s first temple of Goddess Annapurnadevi outside the Indian subcontinent.

Interacted with members of the Indian community based in South Africa who are actively working with different community organisations. They shared their experiences on various issues and were very appreciative of India’s strides across different fields. Urged them to keep up the… pic.twitter.com/yGv9Z6tmnp

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 21, 2025

The inauguration of the temple took place on 1 December, on the auspicious day of Mokshada Ekadashi, in the presence of 4,000 devotees. On 21 November, a G20 leaders’ meeting was held in Johannesburg, attended by leaders of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Russia, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Turkiye, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, India, China, South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Australia, as well as the European Union. On that occasion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Swami Abhedananda and held discussions with him. During the meeting, Prime Minister Modi presented a sacred AshtaLakshmi Kalash to the temple as a gift.

Purpose Behind Establishing the Shri Annapurnadevi Temple in South Africa

1. The objective of establishing the Shri Annapurnadevi Temple is to invoke the nourishing power of Goddess Annapurnadevi to eradicate hunger among local communities in South Africa and to uplift them.

2. Since October 2024, Chinmaya Mission has undertaken a major social initiative in South Africa titled “Nourish to Flourish”. Through this initiative, free meals have been provided to 250,000 underprivileged people and schoolchildren in the city of Durban so far.

3. Under this initiative, 2,000 needy individuals are being provided with nutritious meals free of cost every day. These meals are prepared in a state-of-the-art, large-scale industrial kitchen at the Chinmaya Annapurna Ashram in Durban.

4. To seek the blessings of Goddess Annapurnadevi for this project, Swami Abhedananda conceived the idea of establishing this temple.

Swami Abhedananda’s Spiritual insight

The bhoomipujan ceremony (worship of land before beginning construction) of the modern kitchen at the Chinmaya Mission Ashram was performed In August 2023; on that occasion, Swami Abhedananda remarked, “Shri Annapurnadevi will sit here with a ladle in her hand and feed millions. Witness her miracle within just two to three years!” In less than two years, this modern kitchen has indeed been providing meals to thousands. Devotees of Chinmaya Mission feel that it is as if Shri Annapurnadevi descended from the banks of the Ganga in Kashi to the shores of Durban in South Africa, solely to fulfil Swamiji’s sacred prophecy.