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).
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