The Bharatiya Temple of Lansing is located at 955 Haslett Road, Haslett, Michigan 48840. 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 Sudhakar Kulkarni, Shrikumar Poddar, and Prakash Kapoor, the first group of Trustees of the Temple. The objectives of the Temple, as set down in its Constitution, are as follows: In the second half of 1994, five groups of 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 of that year, three shikhara (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. 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.

A Svetambar murti of Bhagavan Mahavir and a Digambar murti of Bhagavan Parsvanath 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.

Consecration of the planetary deities, the Navagrahas, was celebrated as a 3-day event during Independence Day Weekend 2006 (June 30 – July 2, 2006).

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.

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. Moreover, the Temple has been critical to increasing the visibility of our community in the Greater Lansing area.

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 depend on such periodic major ceremonies in addition to the daily rituals.