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Temple's Tranquil Space
Sunday's weather in Homer Glen was mild for July, with temperatures
in the 70s and a light breeze blowing. But on the grounds of the Sri
Ramakrishna Universal Temple, the air shimmered with heat.
Fires burned in two-dozen brick pits, consuming offerings of oranges, coconuts and scented wood chips as part of a ceremony consecrating the Hindu temple. Worshipers chanted mantras in Sanskrit, invoking the divine presence as they ladled another offering, the clarified butter known as ghee, into the flames.
Some attendees wiped their eyes as they chanted -- perhaps because of the drifting smoke and perhaps because of the occasion's emotional significance as well. More than 100 years after the death of their spiritual leader, Swami Vivekananda, his devotees are fulfilling the swami's dream of a temple that embraces believers of all faiths.
"It's a vision come true," said participant Rajani Patwari, a Tinley Park physician.
The 77-year-old Vivekananda Vedanta Society of Chicago began work on the temple in 2005. When the first phase of the project is finished this fall, the $4.6 million structure will replace the Hyde Park center that has housed the society since 1967. Before that, the society had had various addresses.
In addition to spreading Vivekananda's message of religious tolerance, the new temple will serve another, more pragmatic purpose: making it easier for members to attend services.
"We're very cramped" in the Hyde Park space, said the center's manager, Swami Varadananda.
Most of the center's 200 members live in the suburbs. To attend services in the current location, they must spend at least 45 minutes driving into the city, then struggle to find parking.
Then, too, the busy city setting doesn't always lend itself to quiet spiritual contemplation. At the new temple, which lies on a 15-acre former farmstead at 147th Street and Lemont Road, visitors will hear "birds chirping instead of buses," Varadananda said.
The new 30,000-square-foot temple will allow the Vivekananda Vedanta Society to offer more programs, such as a children's camp, and the society hopes to double or even triple their membership. About 1,600 people are on the group's mailing list.
The society also will continue to support its monastery and retreat facility in Ganges, Mich.
Sunday's ceremony celebrated the impending completion of the first phase of construction of the Homer Glen temple. That phase encompasses a shrine, chapel, bookstore, reading room, kitchen, dining hall and parking lot, as well as living quarters and offices for Varadananda and the other three resident swamis. An existing farmhouse on the grounds will house visiting Hindu nuns.
"Phase 1 has everything we need in order to function," Varadananda said. "Phase 2 will be enlarging the chapel and dining hall." The timeline for the second phase's completion will depend on how quickly the society, which relies on fundraising events and member donations, can come up with the necessary money.
The society is part of the Vedanta school of Hinduism, which stresses the spiritual and philosophical teachings of ancient religious writings known as the Vedas. Vedanta's Ramakrishna Order stems from the teachings of Ramakrishna, a 19th Century Hindu saint who taught that God could be found in all things and all people.
"The idea is that there is a spiritual reality within each person," said Varadananda. "The goal is to get in touch with it, and then your whole life becomes transformed."
Ramakrishna also preached that all religions are equally valid because they lead to the same end, the knowledge of God.
His most prominent disciple, Vivekananda, is credited with introducing Hinduism to the West by speaking at the 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago, where he urged listeners to practice religious tolerance. Afterward, during his travels in the United States, he discussed his vision of a "temple universal" that would welcome members of all faiths.
"The religions are many rivers, and all the rivers merge in the ocean," Swami Chidananda, head of the Chicago society, told worshipers on Sunday. "We are brothers and sisters. There is no place for hatred at all."
The new temple will display images of Buddha and Jesus as well as Vivekananda, Ramakrishna and Ramakrishna's wife Sarada Devi, whom devotees worship as the Holy Mother. Symbols of major world religions will eventually decorate the entrance of the three-story brick building. Five golden domes from India will adorn its roof.
During the consecration, about 200 participants removed their shoes and sat underneath a canopy supported by poles wound with yellow tissue paper and garlands of flowers. Many of them prostrated themselves or touched the swamis' feet in signs of respect and devotion.
Bowls of fruit, platters of orange and gold lilies, and jars of thick yellow ghee surrounded a flower-bedecked altar that bore framed photographs of Vivekananda and Ramakrishna.
During the four-hour service, the swamis and worshipers chanted prayers and invocations before lighting the ceremonial fires in the ritual known as homa.
Longtime member Shyam Bhatia and his wife, Raj, said they are selling their Hyde Park home and moving to a Homer Glen house about 2 miles from the new temple. "Our kids are grown, and this is what we have," Mrs. Bhatia said, pointing to the temple. "This is our second home."
Patwari, meanwhile, is looking forward to one particular aspect of the shorter driving time from her Tinley Park home to the new temple: "You don't have to go on the Dan Ryan."
Anne Ford is a full-time freelance writer in Chicago.
