General Information about the Bharatiya
Temple of Lansing
Pictures
of the temple taken in the summer of 2006 (left) and 2008 (right), showing the
building addition that had been completed in the interval.
The Bharatiya Temple of Lansing is located at 955 Haslett Road, Haslett, Michigan 48840 (see Directions). Its inauguration on March 12, 1994 marked the beginning of a new era for the Hindu community in the greater Lansing area and was the culmination of 12 years of effort by the first group of Trustees of the Temple (see History). The objectives of the Temple, as set down in its Constitution, are as follows:
· Establish permanent Hindu deities (Rama Parivar, Shiva Parivar, Radha-Krishna, Balaji, Ambadevi) in the main sanctum;
· Perform various religious activities such as traditional Puja, Bhajan, Satsang, Havan, and Arati;
· Preserve the Hindu identity (religion, culture, and traditions) for future generations;
· Promote Indian culture and values;
· Provide humanitarian services to the local and world community;
· Promote study and understanding of all religions of the world;
· Develop and maintain harmonious relations among all faiths of the world.
These pages show the progress made on all the above fronts. For a comprehensive guide to most aspects of the Temple, in the form of questions and answers, please see Q and A. For detailed reports on activities since 1998, see the Annual Reports linked from Publications.
In the second half
of 1994, five groups of deities (see Deities) were brought from
India and placed in the Temple sanctum. The consecration (Maha
Prana Pratishta) of these
deities, a once-in-a-lifetime event for any temple,
was celebrated during June 10-14, 1998 and was a deeply satisfying event for
all participants; during this ceremony, the deities were installed in seven
sanctums designed by acclaimed architect Muthiah Sthapathi and built under his direction by a crew of
skilled workers. In November that year, three shikharas
(towers) were installed on top of the building over the sanctum area. The
completion of this phase of the temple construction was celebrated with the
performance of Shikhara Kumbhabhishekam,
the ceremony of worshipfully showering the Kalasha
(sacred pot) atop the central shikhara with holy
water from Kumbhas (pots), on June 26-27, 1999.
Consecration of the planetary deities, the Navagrahas,
was celebrated as a 3-day event during Independence Day Weekend 2006 (June 30
– July 2, 2006).
At the request of
the Lansing-area Jain families, a separate sanctum was completed in the Temple
building in 1999 for installing Jain murtis. A Svetambar murti of Bhagavan Mahavir and a Digambar murti of Bhagavan Parsvanath arrived from
India in December 1999, and their Pratishtha was
celebrated during May 26-29, 2000. Since the beginning of 2000, Jain devotees
have conducted a Puja on the 4th Sunday of every
month at 11 AM and Arati every evening at 7:30 PM.
In response to the growing needs of the
community, a temple expansion project was started in Fall
2007. The completion of the year-long project in September 2008 added several
much-needed amenities: a beautiful acoustic hall, a large dining facility, and
several other amenities, which community members are enjoying for various
functions.
A five-day Maha Kumbhabhishekam ceremony to
re-energize the Deities and mark the completion of twelve years of the Temple
since the initial consecration of the Deities in June 1998 was celebrated on June
9-13, 2010. The power and sanctity of the Temple depends on such periodic major
ceremonies in addition to the daily rituals.
The Temple has
brought our community together, providing the mid-Michigan Hindu and Jain
community a place to practice our religion, foster spiritual growth, and
introduce the Hindu religion and culture to our children and to those
interested in learning about them. It was a particularly proud moment for our
community when East Lansing High School’s graduating seniors held their
Baccalaureate event at our Temple in May 2009. It has fostered numerous
religious, spiritual, and social programs (see Temple
Events Calendar); it has provided a platform to introduce Indian religion
and culture to our children; and it has helped mobilize our community to acts
of charity and compassion for others (see Community Services).
Moreover, the Temple has been critical to increasing the visibility of our
community in the Greater Lansing area.
Since January
1998, the Temple has had the services of full-time priests. For most of the
time, there have been two priests. Upon the arrival of the priests, the Temple
open hours were expanded and a schedule of two Pujas
every day of the year was implemented (see Open Hours and Puja Schedule). See priest services for
information on how to schedule priest services either inside or outside the
temple.
If you are
residing in or visiting the Lansing area, we invite you to visit our Temple, no
matter whether your interest is to observe or to participate. For further
information about the Temple, please call any member of the
democratically-elected nine-member Board of Trustees.
We have created Links to several Web sites
devoted to Hinduism, Hindu organizations, other Bharatiya
religions, general-interest topics dealing with India, and Indian stories for children.
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