The Temples in North America at the time were predominantly located in large metropolitan cities like Pittsburgh, Chicago and New York. The general feeling was smaller communities like Peoria could not afford to have a Temple of their own. Our wish to have our own Temple would always be a dream. A group of us at the time decided to beat the odds and embark on the journey.
Each of us pledged so much money, not knowing whether the building was going to be of a certain size; whether it will be a prayer hall or a place where the community came together. We filed with the State to charter the organization as a nonprofit religious organization. Upon registration, we began to function as a religious institution under the registered name “Hindu Heritage Center”. We observed major religious festivals by getting together in rented school auditoriums and at times in church halls.
The name, Hindu Heritage Center, was chosen for a number of reasons at the time. Initially, we did not want to engage in a long drawn debate about whether we would have a Temple, if so what type of a Temple, what deities would we have and so on. Our vision was simply that this would be a place of worship, and we would showcase Hindu religion and culture. Perhaps, this would be a worship hall, where we would worship the sacred symbol “OM”.
The community connected and built momentum. At every major festival we observed in a rented facility, the longing for having our own got stronger. With nearly $200K raised, the quest began for acquiring a piece of land where we would build our Center. We resisted desires to get started quickly by buying an existing facility; the build option would be challenging but get us started with a clean slate.
- Raised before the land search
- ~$200K
- Original registered name
- Hindu Heritage Center
