“A Real Temple”

Kamala Puram

Eden Prairie, Minnesota | Asian Indian | She/her/hers

A Hindu temple is a house of worship for followers of Hinduism. It’s a very important religious symbol and it’s up to us to make sure that our new temple continues to exist for generations to come. The best way to express this sentiment is to share my story. I am taking you back to 1979 when I got married to Prakash, India. I was 21-years-old and soon after our marriage we moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota. As the plane landed in the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport, I wondered about our future and how our lives will turn out in this new place.  

As usual, I took solace in God and assured myself that everything would be fine. A couple of weeks go by, and as we were slowly settling in, I received a phone call from a friend of mine. She asked me if we would like to go to the temple. When I heard the word “temple,” I was so excited since this would be the first time we were going to visit the temple as a married couple. I told my husband that we should wear new clothes and get blessings from the priest.  When we arrived, I was quite disappointed to see that the temple looked like a church. I was even more disappointed when I found out that we did not have a priest.

As the years passed we had our children, but I always felt that there was something missing; the opportunity to expose our children to the Hindu religion and rituals. We were fortunate to have our parents who visited us during summer to help us perform the religious activities at home. Even though it was not the same as performing at the temple, this was better than doing nothing. When I was growing up, Hindu festivals, rituals, and culture was woven into my daily life. Who I am today is connected to that rich Hindu upbringing. Unfortunately, I could not provide the same to to my kids when they were growing up.

In 2000, it brought music to my ears when I heard that a real temple was being built. I was excited and wanted to help out in any way possible. The whole community came together and we were able to successfully complete the temple.  Now we have a magnificent 42,000 square feet temple with many priests who engage us at a spiritual level. Since we opened the temple in July 2006, priests have performed many weddings, hundreds of different poojas, and thousands of archanas. 

I’m happy to see that now we have a real temple that exposes our next generation to Hindu religion. My children are all grown-up and married. Every time they come to visit us, we make it a point to take them to the temple. 

I hope that the Maple Grove temple will become a landmark for our children and generations to come.