Content area
Full Text
Hindu rituals give life to temple
'Installation of deities' celebrated
By CORISSA JANSEN
of the Journal Sentinel staff
Sunday, June 30, 2002
City of Pewaukee -- When Prem Sharma came to the United States in the 1960s to study at Marquette University's dental school, the Burma native and a handful of Hindu families would hold prayer meetings in their houses for lack of a space to worship.
Having long outgrown gathering in basements, a burgeoning Wisconsin Hindu population now has a temple of its own to call home. And on Friday at the Hindu Temple of Wisconsin, Sharma shared his joy with dozens of other Hindus flitting about the wooded grounds, as they prepared for the defining moment in the life of the two- year-old temple -- the pran pratishthapana, or the installation of the deities.
"It's a matter of great joy and pride for our community," said Sharma, 70, of Milwaukee. "This has been a long time coming."
Today, after four days of elaborate rituals of purification and consecration, life will be ceremoniously breathed into the temple as statues of Hindu gods are infused with prana, or "life force."
It is one of the most important ceremonies for a Hindu...