Deities at the Temple
Please click on the individual deities to see close-up pictures and descriptions of them.
The picture above shows the deities in the
main sanctum of the Bharatiya Temple of Lansing. All
the deities have equal status; there is no designated chief deity. In clockwise
order, they are:
- Shri Ganesha
- Shri
Uma-Maheshwara
- Shri Amba Mata
- Shri Rama
Parivar
- Shri
Radha Krishna
- Shri Venkateshwara (Balaji)
- Shri Kartikeya (Subrahmanya)
Please click on the names of
the deities to see close-up pictures and descriptions of them.
The deities were installed in their present
configuration at the time of their Prana Pratishtha (consecration) in June 1998, but have been at
the temple for longer than that. The deity of Shri Ganesha was a gift to the Hindu community of Lansing in
1982 by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami of Hawaii. Shri Ganesha remained in the home of community members Sudhakar
and Usha Kulkarni for ten years, before moving to the
newly constructed temple in April 1992. All the other deities were received
from India in the summer of 1994 and, along with Shri
Ganesha, were installed in a temporary sanctum on
October 2, 1994. During the Prana Pratishtha
ceremony of June 10-14, 1998, they were permanently installed in the present
sanctum, consisting of seven small sanctums (mandaps)
designed by acclaimed architect Muthiah Sthapathi of Chennai and built under his direction by a
crew of skilled workers. The Prana Pratishtha ceremony, a procedure prescribed by the
scriptures to transform the murtis (idols) into
living deities -- a once-in-a-lifetime event for any
temple -- was a deeply satisfying event for all participants.
The temple has a side sanctum, opening from
the main sanctum, for Navagraha Devatas,
the nine planetary deities. They were consecrated in a 3-day ceremony over
Independence Day 2006 weekend (June 30 - July 2, 2006). Prior to their
consecration, they were in a temporary sanctum since September 2001.
The picture above shows the Navagraha Devatas. In the center
is Surya (Sun). In the front corner of the picture is Chandra (Moon), and
clockwise from there are: Kuja or Mangala
(Mars), Rahu (northern nodal point of the moon), Sani (Saturn), Ketu (southern
nodal point of the moon), Guru or Brhaspati
(Jupiter), Budha (Mercury), and Sukra
(Venus). As per tradition, no two of them face each other.
Noteworthy statues at the temple are those of
Lord Nataraja (Dancing Siva) in the main temple hall
and of Goddess Saraswati in the library. Pictures of these are shown at:
The temple also has another sanctum where
Jain murtis are worshipped.
This sanctum was built in 1999 under the
direction of Muthiah Sthapathi.
He designed it in the second half of 1998, incorporating motifs taken from the
Jain temple in Mount Abu in Rajasthan, and his team of assistants completed it
in early 1999. In December 1999, murtis of
arrived from India. They were consecrated during Memorial Day
weekend in 2000 (May 26-29, 2000).