Hindu Temple of Minnesota

[Jodhaa]

I had the opportunity to visit the Hindu Temple of Minnesota this week when I visited some old friends in Minneapolis. Incredibly beautiful, despite being locked in ice and snow at this time of year. We went in the evening and found the main hall almost empty except for the Temple Priests. The murti's are stunning and the main deity, Varadaraja, was the largest I've ever seen! The Temple is very well taken care of. We even had an opportunity to watch one of the sculpture artists working on improving a facade on one of the pillars. What amazing talent!

This particular temple had been vandalized a few years ago so the irrational part of me was nervous that we might not be welcome, but my fears were unjustified (as per usual):) The priests even moved aside as we came around to the Varadaraja murti so that we could have Darshan.

My friends who accompanied me are non-religious, but they were amazed at the architecture and we all wished we had brought our sketchbooks.:D

I want to visit again one day, most definitely.

[Jeffery D. Long]

How wonderful! I have some good friends from that temple community, and knew about the vandalism. It's great that the community and the temple itself have healed so beautifully.

[Believer]

Namaste,

Great story, glad to know that you had such a positive experience by visiting the beautiful deities.

It is unfortunate that the American anger/fear of Islam is usually expressed by killing sikhs and by desecrating Hindu mandirs. The general population (or the rednecks who commit such crimes) are unable to distinguish muslims/mosques from Hindus/sikhs and mandirs.

On a side note, it is worth mentioning that Hindus generally do not consider all Westerners to be bad and the random acts are not stored in their memory to generate reciprocal hatred/anger. An example is the cordial relationship that India has with England, even after being ruled and humiliated for 300+ years. So, no one should have any apprehension about not being welcome in a mandir in America.

Pranam.

[Jodhaa]

Namaste,

It is unfortunate that the American anger/fear of Islam is usually expressed by killing sikhs and by desecrating Hindu mandirs. The general population (or the rednecks who commit such crimes) are unable to distinguish muslims/mosques from Hindus/sikhs and mandirs.

On a side note, it is worth mentioning that Hindus generally do not consider all Westerners to be bad and the random acts are not stored in their memory to generate reciprocal hatred/anger. An example is the cordial relationship that India has with England, even after being ruled and humiliated for 300+ years. So, no one should have any apprehension about not being welcome in a mandir in America.

Pranam.

I was interested in how the Temple handled the punishment for the two individuals that vandalized the Temple. Apparently they were minors at the time, and instead of "throwing the book at them" and sending them to jail, the Temple pushed for a lighter sentence - they had the individuals volunteer their time at the temple for a certain number of hours, rather then have them waste their young lives in prison for being idiots. I think that was an admirable thing to do, and will hopefully serve the two young people well in the future. :)

[Jeffery D. Long]

Namaste,
It is unfortunate that the American anger/fear of Islam is usually expressed by killing sikhs and by desecrating Hindu mandirs. The general population (or the rednecks who commit such crimes) are unable to distinguish muslims/mosques from Hindus/sikhs and mandirs.


Indeed. Our local mandir was vandalized (a stone thrown through a glass door) shortly after 9/11. The community decided to put up an American flag in front of the mandir, and there have been no such incidents since that time.

[Viraja]

I had a lengthy write-up written here, but don't know how, upon submission, the message was torn and could only see a tiny bit of it. So instead of posting a deleted message, am posting the picture of Sri Kanchi Varadaraja here: (The burnt marks on his face are because he emerged from Sacrificial fire offered by brahma) -

http://photos.divyadesam.com/nov-09/hindu-gods-images/kanchipuram-srivaradhar.jpg (http://photos.divyadesam.com/nov-09/photos-hindu-gods-goddesses-nov-08-09.shtml)

[firmamental]

I was interested in how the Temple handled the punishment for the two individuals that vandalized the Temple. Apparently they were minors at the time, and instead of "throwing the book at them" and sending them to jail, the Temple pushed for a lighter sentence - they had the individuals volunteer their time at the temple for a certain number of hours, rather then have them waste their young lives in prison for being idiots. I think that was an admirable thing to do, and will hopefully serve the two young people well in the future. :)
That's quite exemplary, a very noble and wise response by the Temple community.