Sri Venkateswara Swami Temple in Aurora

When we visited the Sri Venkateswara Swami Temple in Aurora, I really wasn't sure what to expect. For me, it was very strange to actually see all of the elements we'd discussed in class, happening here in America and not in Asia. Somehow, it all seemed out of place around here.

Our tour guide started by giving us a little bit of Indian history, as well as differentiating between North Indian and South Indian temples. This temple was a South Indian temple, with all of the statues made from black granite stone. It has been open for around 20 years and is dedicated to both Shiva and Vishnu. Before we went into the temple area, we had to take our shoes off, for cleanliness, because people pray and sit on the floor often. Around the temple area, small rooms lined the main room with shrines dedicated to many different gods and their avatars.

Some things that surprised me about the Temple were how fresh offerings were put in front of and on the statues every day. As a classmate mentioned, I'd like to know how much it cost to decorate the place daily! The flower garlands on each statue would be extremely costly to keep fresh, and the offerings of fruit and milk would also be expensive.

Miniature forms of the gods are all "woken up" in the morning and put to bed at night in small beds by the 4 priests, or brahmin, of the temple. The main gods are given baths with milk, honey, and spices every day, while the lesser gods are given baths once or twice per week on a set schedule.

One thing that bugs me about worshiping statues as "gods" is that, in every Hindu temple in the world, there are copies of the same god. I realize that the statues are incarnations of the god they represent. But in India, where there would be a temple in every town, it seems that worshiping each statue made of each god every day in such a time-consuming (not to mention, wasteful) way is ridiculous.

How does giving a marble statue a milk bath every day lead towards inner peace and release from samsara? I don't get it. I realize the rituals are there for a reason, to provide structure in a believer's life, but there has to be a point where "enough's enough." Can that really help? Wouldn't doing things for the community, or even prayer and reflection, be more useful than all the work it takes to run the temple in that way?