April19, 2014: Harish Gowda of Bloomington sets up a portrait of a Hindu deity in the new Hindu temple at 1815 Tullamore Ave. in Bloomington. The images will eventually be replaced with stone monuments as the temple prepares for its formal opening.

Just 48 hours before grand opening ceremonies, the Twin Cities’ new Hindu temple was abuzz with the sounds of saws and hammers as crews laid carpet and installed fixtures while organizers awaited the help of about 100 volunteers due later that day.

“I’m feeling so great. We are only a few days away from a major accomplishment for all the town people — one of tloche greatest achievements in our lifetime,” said Rammohan Mundlapudi, president of the Hindu Temple of Bloomington-Normal executive committee. “Otherwise we have to go to Peoria or Chicago. Now it’s in our own town.”

The new religious facility sits in the far southeast corner of Bloomington, at 1815 Tullamore Ave., and will be used for worship for the first time this weekend.

Anyone curious about the Hindu religion is welcome to attend the ceremonies. The temple will be sanctified Friday and Saturday. Sunday’s activities from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., which include the first time of worship, would be a good time to visit, said Mundlapudi. He said the event will include emcees, subject experts and volunteers to guide visitors through the building.

The temple is a “dream” for many of the estimated 7,000 residents from India who reside in the Bloomington-Normal area, said Ajay Kalavala, president of the McLean County India Association.

“We want to show our culture and heritage,” he said, explaining that a key aspect of the temple is its role as a place for youth education.

Mundlapudi emphasized the “multi-functional” aspect of the temple that includes a kitchen and dining room and several classrooms. “For children, we have to pass on our knowledge because children were born here, they are not as much exposed to it,” he said.

The temple is dominated by a large, open room. Entered through a short, wide hallway flanked with a space for shoes, the temple’s worship room hosts a stage for lectures and cultural dance and music performances. Against another wall, the room will have figures of 11 deities now in production in India and waiting for the building to be sanctified.

For now, the deities are represented in portraits and one, of Ambha, shows a female figure with many arms and each hand wielding a different weapon. She’s a powerful female form of God that has the ability to crush any kind of evil, Mundlapudi said.

Other forms represented in the portraits, some male and some female, represent peace, prosperity and health, he said. Each Hindu believer may focus on one form and some are worshiped at different times of the year.

“There are many forms of one Lord,” Mundlapudi said.

After the grand opening ceremonies, the temple will be staffed by volunteers and open for limited hours as final touches are completed over the next six to eight weeks. But eventually the temple will be open all day, Mundlapudi said.

“We’ll work to it as we go,” he said.

The temple will employ multiple priests and there are expansion plans as its congregation and coffers grow.

“The temples get their attention as we go by. People in Chicago, people in Peoria, people in Champaign, may not get exposed so early. It takes time to grow it,” Mundlapudi said. “We have faith in the Lord. This is the Lord’s place. His duty is to make it run and he will run it.”