Temple housing 126 deities built in Michigan

Paschima Kasi Sri Vishwanatha (PKSV) Temple in Flint (Michigan) has raised another temple in its compound costing around half-million dollars, reports suggest.

This towering structure contains 126 deities; its construction took over a year which included importing about 7,000 white limestone blocks from Canada; and it will be used for special worships and ceremonies. It took two artisans from India about a year to sculpt the 126 deities from white concrete while living at the temple. It is open to all and has two adjacent life-sized elephant sculptures.

Meanwhile, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, commended efforts of temple leaders and area community for realizing this Hindu temple.

Rajan Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, further said that it was important to pass on Hindu spirituality, concepts and traditions to coming generations amidst so many distractions in the consumerist society and hoped that this temple would help in this direction. Zed stressed that instead of running after materialism; we should focus on inner search and realization of Self and work towards achieving moksh (liberation), which was the goal of Hinduism.

PKSV Temple was founded in 1982 and it established Shiva Temple. Located adjacent to lake and stream on about 10 acres plot, it opens every day. Besides worship services, it also hosts various cultural programs and has a library. Hanuman Marur is the president.

Located along the Flint River, Flint was founded as a village in 1819 by a fur trader and was incorporated as a city in 1855. Dayne Walling and Joshua M. Freeman are Mayor and City Council President respectively. Prominent people associated with Flint include NFL Hall of Famer Paul Krause, filmmaker Michael Moore, Olympic gold medalist boxer Claressa Shields and actress Nancy Kovack.

Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world, has about one billion adherents. There are about three million Hindus in USA.