Hindu Society of Minnesota

The temple's website states that "The doors of the temple are open to anybody regardless of the faith one practices." 

When Raj Balasubramanian immigrated to the United States in the 1960s, there was no organized way for Hindus to find each other: "There were so few Hindus that we would go through the White Pages and look for Indian names, trying to find others."¹  In 1978, the Hindu Society of Minnesota (of which Balasubramanian has been serving as a trustee) was founded in response to this need. In 1979, the organization purchased a church, which became the society’s first temple, or mandir. This original location quickly became too small for the community it supported. In 2003, the Hindu Society began the construction of the recognizable temple in Maple Grove, Minnesota. Uniquely, the temple contains shrines to 19 distinct deities. 

The Jain Center of Minnesota is located within the Hindu Temple of Minnesota. 

Although temples in India are not always dedicated to a single God, the fact that Minnesota is in a diaspora, where Hindus from all regions are brought together, creates a greater diversity of worship. The leaders of the mandir emphasize, though, that they see these deities as “different manifestations of divine energy,” and that Hindus worship “just one God.”²  Hindus who worship the deities differently are brought together both by the building itself and by a belief in God’s unity. The temple is also unique in its adaptation to its environment. The building’s designers used a brand-new variety of pre-cast concrete for the outside walls, rather than traditional stone. The details on the temple’s facade need to be fortified to withstand the harsher Minnesota climate. Still, the construction is faithful to classic Hindu architecture. The Hindu Mandir of Minnesota strikes a complicated balance between immigrant traditions and the American environment. This diaspora temple is different from anything that exists in India. It is a uniquely Minnesotan Hindu temple.³ 

Vandalism of the Mandir 

The construction of the temple was not without difficulty. In 2006, two Minnesotan teens confessed to vandalizing the mandir. They kicked in doors, broke windows, and, worst of all, destroyed sanctified sculptures of the deities. The Hindu Mandir’s response demonstrated their desire to live peacefully with their community: the men were ordered to perform community service at the temple, where they “were greeted with hugs, an offer of a home-cooked Indian dinner and a lesson in Hindu values and principles like karma, self-control and nonviolence.”⁴ The very presence of the temple is offensive to some, but the Hindu community’s openness showed their desire to connect, rather than isolate themselves, from their neighbors. This connection extended to their place of worship. When it was aggressively violated, their doors remained open, even to the offenders themselves.