Maharashtra Welfare Oriya Association ( MOWA), established in 1998 by a team o f 17 Odias, then the residents of Kalamboli. The Trust was registered under The Maharashtra Society's Act-1960 and The Maharashtra Trust Act- 1950 on 17th May.

To give a little background of MOWA, Its a Socio-Spiritual Organization, which conceived the idea of construction of a temple of Lord Shree Jagannath in the modern city of KHARGHAR, Navi Mumbai for the benefit of devotees of Mumbai, decision was taken during the year 2006 to team up and take help of few eminent members with administrative and corporate experience with great difficulties and lot of hardship and follow-ups, MOWA could get the land from CIDCO in 2009/2010 to set up the Mandir of Lord Jagannath.

The Maharashtra Oriya Welfare Association, since inception, has been trying to increase the strength of its Life Members and as in June 2019, the total membership increased from 17 to 357. The activities of MOWA increased manifold with the active participation of its members and interested devotees who arranged Free Medical camps, Blood donation camps, Tree plantation, serving food to Cancer patients and helping the cyclone affected people in Odisha recently. In addition to the charitable activities, of late managing SHREE JAGANNATH TEMPLE became main objective of MOWA since the year 2011. Thousands of devotees visit the Temple and get blessings of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra , Maa Subhadra and Chakra Sudarshan, known as CHATURDHA MURTY. All the rituals of Lord are being carried out in the Temple as per Jagannath Culture. Among so many festivals being celebrated by Shree Jagannath Mandir, the most famous festival is RATHA YATRA of the Lord and the same is being celebrated every year since the year 2011, with every possible pomp and show.

Today, with the blessings of the LORD SHREE JAGANNATHA, the daily rituals, daily Puja and observance of traditional festivals throughout the year along with other activities in the Temple guide the people of Mumbai and Navi Mumbai and show a new way to enrich once life with faith and devotion towards LORD SHREE JAGANNATHA.

Periodically we conduct various cultural & Social events within the premises of Shree Jagannath Mandir, which is organised & managed by MOWA. MOWA, through its various programmes and functions, tried to sustain and spread the essence of ODISSI CULTURE with the sole aim to bring peace and harmony amongst the members, especially ODIAS and spread Jagannatha Culture.

ABOUT SHREE JAGANNATH MANDIR

The place was named as NILACHALA PEETHA and a small temple was constructed and Pran Pratistha of Deities was done in the year 2011 by eminent Pandits from Puri.

The Temple was renovated in the year 2018. The new Mandir was solemnised by the holy hands of Hon. Gajapati Maharaj & Maharani Saheba of Puri. The Deities were donated by Dr [Mrs] Namita Mishra and Shri Ramachandra Mishra from Bhubaneswar.

Thereafter, Daily rituals of Lord Jagannatha commenced immediately including Ratha Yatra of Lord during the month of ASHAD. The first Ratha Yatra was celebrated during the year 2011.

As days passed by, thousands of devotees visited the temple, not only from local area but also from far distant places of Greater Mumbai to get the blessings of the Lord. With the search of funds to renovate the Mandir a large number of Devotees joined the organisation as LIFE MEMBERS and offered donations for Construction of main Mandir.

A detailed plan was prepared by M/S DIMENSIONS, Vashi for construction of Main Temple and was duly approved by CIDCO. The construction work as per plan, commenced in the month of January, 2014. The Pile Foundation work was engineered by Shri A G Gokhale, a Consultant in this field and offered honorary services.

Shri Jaya Sahu of M/S MAA ENTERPRISES, Civil Contractors, commenced Civil work of Ground and First Floor on 27.02.2014 and completed the entire RRC work by December, 2014. All other work commenced by January 2018 after obtaining Occupation Certificate from CIDCO.

A team consisting of 15 artists belonging to village MATHURA, Dist: Ganjam led by SHRI RAMACHANDRA MAHARANA AND SHRI BALAKRISHNA MAHARANA did the rest of the work.

ABOUT LORD SHREE JAGANNATH

LORD SHREE JAGANNATHA, is the GOD of Universe , worshipped since time immemorial. HE is every where. His Idol is round representing ZERO, symbolic of nothingness as well as fullness and implies the completion of a process. HE is the sovereign God and incarnate of one amongst different forms of LORD VISHNU. The Holy Trinity, Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra [ His elder Brother] and MAA Subhadra [ His Sister] represent three races; Black, White and Yellow. These three races represent three qualities, SATWIK, TAMASIK AND RAJASIK. There is no discrimination of devotees on caste, creed or religion basis. He allowed a tribal king to worship Him for His initial installation. He had given His piece of mind on this by directly accepting the coconut from Bauri [an outcaste]. He is Deena Bandhu. He is all weather friend of the downtrodden. He taught his poor friend Sudama how to improve one's lot by dint of individual purity, perseverance, honesty and devotion to one's own conscience. For Him, the mankind could only be classified into two, the performers and the non-performer. While performers get rewarded, Non-performers wait till they are spiritually educated. Tolerance and mutual help are shown to be the fundamental virtues in any situation. Who has displayed it more explicitly than the Lord when He helps a Muslim writing an epic on Hindu religion or even helping the king of Puri marrying the daughter of the King of Kanchi, who measured the personality of the king of Puri through his taste of sweeping the ground for the Lord ? The economic diplomacy here is also worth emulating.

ABOUT FACILITIES IN SHREE JAGANNATH MANDIR

Presently following facilities are made available in Mandir.
1] "Anna Bhog" as Prasad [ Daily ] prepared and served to persons for a nominal amount.
2] Birthday engagement and anniversary are celebrated by the devotees in the Mandir premises along with arrangements for Prasad as per order of their choice.
3] "Vehicle Puja" of both Four wheelers and Two wheelers done by Pujaris for a price.
4] "Shradha" ceremony is carried out during whole of the year, including "Pitru Paksha"
5] An outlet is available in the Mandir premises where all types of puja items and flowers are available for purchase by the Devotees.
6] The registered members of MOWA as on date stand at 365. Many more facilities are yet to be added in the days to come.