Published on
Friday, July 14, 2000 © 2000 Madison Newspapers, Inc. Used with permission
Byline: John-Brian Paprock
Almost two years ago, they blessed the ground in
the ancient manner of their ancestors, preparing the land to receive the
temples. Friday, July 7, 2000, was the
auspicious day to celebrate the first Hindu temple in Wisconsin.
One of less than 50 Hindu temples in the United
States, the Hindu Temple of Wisconsin is located in the Village of Pewaukee on
22 acres of land, north of Capitol Avenue on Pewaukee Road, passed the
Jehovah’s Witness Temple and right next door to the very large Shepard of the
Hills Lutheran Church (LCMS).
Even though some of the building details need to
be filled in and the main idols won’t be officially installed until May 2001,
Hindus from communities throughout Wisconsin celebrated their first temple
puja. A puja is a Hindu religious ceremony that includes the offering of
flowers. Nearly 200 people of all
generations attended the 3-hour offering service last Friday. Many took the entire day off to travel and
spend the auspicious day in prayer and devotion. Sunday was another puja that included a Jain ceremony as well.
The temple fills a tremendous need, according to
Board member Manju Shah. “With the
majority of Indians, like with all the religions, there is a need to have a
temple, to have a local priest for ceremonies,” she said.
The $4.5 million dollar facility actually has
two buildings. The Hindu Temple and the
Jain Temple were, at first, going to be a shared building, but the separate
needs of the Jain religious ceremonies prompted a separate temple
construction. “It’s a joint effort,
because they are part of the Indian community.
We let the 60 or so Jain families to raise enough funds for their own
designated temple. So they did,” said Shah, whose husband is Jain.
The Jain temple is one of just over 20 Jain
temples in North America. The Jain
religion is similar to Hindu beliefs but the methods of devotion and worship
are very different.
Only seven acres are “buildable,” but that’s OK,
according to Board president Kumar Iyer. Quite a few acres are DNR protected. “The temple should be in a natural place of
beauty because the temple is a center of peace,” he said. He expects the building to eventually be
open daily from 8:00 am to 9:00 pm at night when there is a resident
priest.
Although estimates vary, Manju says there are
over 1,000 Hindu families in Wisconsin.
“Some would travel all the way to Chicago to go to a temple, but many
would not. It’s getting harder to find
and rent space for our ceremonies,” says Shah. More than half of the families
are within 10 minutes of the temple.
“Appleton has been very involved. Racine, Kenosha have been
involved.” Madison is also involved as
are many towns and cities in between.
One of the major sponsors at the ceremony was the Turlapati family from
Neenah.
At the center of this first temple puja in
Wisconsin was the sacred fire into which the priest offered flowers, food,
water, oil, and other sacred elements with prayers and songs. “In all Hindu ceremonies,” explained Shah,
“fire is a part of them. Some will worship only with the fire. Some will worship with an image.”
Kalyan Sundaram was the priest from the Hindu
temple in Aurora, Illinois brought up especially to conduct Friday’s inaugural
ceremonies. He is a priest of the
Balaji order. Balaji is one of the incarnations
of Vishnu, the principal deity for Wisconsin’s Hindu Temple.
Due to the importance of occasion, a special
offering called “purna anunti” was placed into the fire. The priest used a brand new golden sari
(given for this purpose). Sundaram asked everyone to put some pocket change
into the offering bundle. When the offerings
were gathered, he placed the entire bundle into the fire. “In India, we ask for gold coins,” Sundaram
said as the flames began to consume the offering.
Then a small idol of the Hindu deity Ganesh was
honored, dressed in robes and flowers, anointed with yellow and red paint. Once the deity was invited and decorated
appropriately, it was venerated by the faithful and the puja was completed.
Now the community has officially opened the
temple for use. In fact, bookings for a
wedding, a transition ceremony (called a thread ceremony), and some regular
meetings of the Hindu community had already been scheduled.
Can anyone visit the temple?
“After living in this country for 30 years, I’ve
met people from all walks of life. People are people.” Says Shah, “It doesn’t
matter whether they are American or Indian or non-Indian, they have the same
good and bad. We have a saying, ‘There
are as many paths as there are human beings. They all lead to the same thing.’
We hope that whoever feels comfortable will come. We hope to see a mixture of cultures here. Anybody is most welcome.”
