PEWAUKEE — Pewaukee, Wisconsin is not the first place you’d think of as a cultural and spiritual hub for Dharmic (Indian) religions.
However, thousands of worshipers come to this Midwestern community to visit the four Dharmic temples in the area. There are three Hindu temples and one Jain temple that are within three miles of each other.
To put that into further context, there are about a dozen Dharmic temples in the entire state. That means 25 percent of them are inside the City of Pewaukee which has 16,169 residents and the Town of Pewaukee with a population of just 8,177.
To understand a bit more about Hinduism and Jainism, think about it like this. While not a perfect analogy, the three Hindu temples represent different sects like Lutherans and Catholics in Christianity. Jainism is similar to Hinduism, like how Christianity and Judaism are related.
We often expect a lot of rigidity regarding religion. Lutherans don't usually attend Catholic services. But with these temples, there's more fluidity. It’s not uncommon for devotees to go to multiple different temples in one week or month.
"Most of Jains when they come here (Jain Temple) they go through Hindu Temple. They come here or come here and then go through Hindu temple,” Kamal Shah, the president of Jain Religion Center of Wisconsin, said.
Those four temples are Hindu Temple of Wisconsin (HTW), Wisconsin Shirdi Sai, BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, and the Jain Religion Center of Wisconsin.
“I feel like it’s the epicenter of our culture - not just religiously but just culturally, emotionally and just you know friendships et cetera,” Shireesha Vijayapal, the president of HTW said.
In this 23rd episode of the My Block series, TMJ4’s James Groh met with Shireesha to learn why Pewaukee became the community thousands of Hindus and Jains travel to every week and to explore the close relationship between these four temples. Welcome to Shireesha’s neighborhood.
Hindu Temple of Wisconsin
To understand a story about Hindu and Jain temples in Wisconsin, you have to start at the Hindu Temple of Wisconsin.
It was constructed in 2001. It is one of, if not, the largest Hindu temples in the state. About 2,500 families are part of the temple. That means there are thousands upon thousands of members in this congregation.
“One of the biggest Hindu temples in Wisconsin is our Hindu Temple of Wisconsin. Here we have people coming from Appleton, Madison, (and) Chicago areas as well,” Vijayapal said.
Hindu Temple of Wisconsin’s founders could have built their temple anywhere in Wisconsin. However, they decided on the City of Pewaukee because of its location and its previous relationship with the city of Pewaukee. It was a convenient decision. Plus, it was cheaper to build in Pewaukee than in Milwaukee.
“Pewaukee because it’s a quieter suburb and neighborhood. And we wanted to be away from the hustle (and) bustle of the areas. And (the) City of Pewaukee was extremely gracious with the land 20 years ago,” Vijayapal said.
Hinduism is a diverse religion. Each of the three Hindu temples (as well as many of the other temples in Wisconsin) celebrates different deities and spiritual leaders. The different belief systems are all recognized as legitimate means to understanding God and the Divine.
Hindu Temple of Wisconsin represents a broad spectrum of beliefs where many different deities are worshipped. However, the deities at the center of the temple are Vishnu and Shiva.
“This is more in tune with what we call the Vedas - the scriptures as opposed to following a particular guru or a saint and his or her teachings. We are bringing the core of Hinduism which is basically built on Vedas,” Sarvesh Geddam, who is on the educational committee at HTW, said.
Vedas are Hindu religious texts. Geddam called HTW a “general purpose temple” because it hosts multiple different sects of Hinduism. It almost operates like an incubator space by allowing various sects to practice their beliefs until that congregation is able to raise the funds to purchase its own space.
“It’s diverse, yet it’s all together cause we’re all from the same Hinduism,” temple president Vijayapal said.
Even when those sects move to their own temple, many will return to HTW for major holidays and events.
James Groh visited HTW on the last day of Brahmostav. It translates to Annual Mega Festival. There is food, dance, worship, and the procession of a deity on an altar around the temple. People from the Shirdi Sai Temple, Hare Krishna Temple, BAPS Swaminarayan Temple, and more came to celebrate.
“You can worship Shiva. You can worship Vishnu. You can worship Sai or you can worship Swaminarayan, but ultimately you are leading up to that common goal of reaching that truth and obtaining that nirvana, right,” Geddam said.
It’s easy to worship at any temple. That’s further exemplified by the relationship between Hindu Temple of Wisconsin and the Jain Religion Center of Wisconsin.
Jain Religion Center of Wisconsin
The two temples share a parking lot. They are just a few feet apart from each other. To put that into context, it’s rare to ever find a Christian Church and Jewish Temple sharing a parking lot. Yet, these two congregations have been sharing a plot of land since their temples were built in 2001.
This level of hospitality extends beyond these two temples. There is even a service road that connects the Hindu and Jain temples to Shepherd of the Hills Church, a Lutheran congregation just down the road.
“In 2001 when we had our inauguration, at that time there were maybe 35 families. We are over 60 now, so it is expanding,” Kamal Shah, the president of the Jain Religion Center of Wisconsin, said.
This is the first and only Jain Temple in the Badger State. Jainism shares beliefs with Hinduism but also has its own spiritual leaders, teachings, and history.
“We concentrate on what is common and not the differences,” Shah said.
On any given day, there are devotees worshiping at both temples.
“This day and age there are lots of mixed marriages. And so we respect both. Most of Jains when they come here, they go through Hindu temple,” Shah said.
Since there are only about 70 Jain Temples in the country, this one occasionally entices Indian immigrants to consider moving to Wisconsin.
“And sometimes people find out there is a Jain Temple here, so people from India who are coming to this country find it more attractive to come to this place where they have a place of worship,” Shah said.
The Jain Temple is active within the community defending causes it believes in. A core tenet for Jains is non-violence. That extends to animals which is why many Jains are vegetarian. Through various peaceful tactics, Shah and his congregations were able to delay and ultimately prevent the construction of a new slaughterhouse in Franklin.
Shah won an award at an annual Jain convention for those efforts as well as his overall success in cultivating a Jain community in Wisconsin.
BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir
Just about one mile away is another temple, the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir. Here worshipers celebrate Swaminarayan. He was a 19th-century guru who offered new interpretations of scriptures like the Bhagavad Gita, which is similar to the bible.
“The way I see Hinduism is unity in diversity. We have different - we consider there to be different avatars of the same divine entity, and people feel connected to different avatars in different ways. And so there is liberty to worship whichever avatar the manifestation of God we feel most connected to,” Amita Rao, who is on the outreach team at the temple, said.
These devotees started to gather in 2009 at HTW. Once the following started to grow and enough funds were raised, they bought an old mattress warehouse just a few minutes away from HTW. This temple was completed in 2018 and has about 100 families. They chose Pewaukee because it’s close to their original temple and centrally located between the Madison and Milwaukee metro areas.
“The number of people who said gosh we would like the opportunity to offer worship that is specific to us, and that is specific to Bhagwan Swaminarayan and to Gunitanand Swami and to celebrate our festivals that are unique in different ways - in our way as opposed to it being a shared space. Let’s have our own space. We’re not separating through our thoughts or feelings, we’re just giving ourselves that space to go ahead and worship as we would like to," Rao said.
Congregants drive from Fon du Lac, Green Bay, Madison, and Milwaukee.
We visited the temple on Guru Purnima which is a celebration and recognition of the contribution of gurus like Swaminarayan. There was a general sermon that everyone attended, but Rao made it a point to also take us into a separate service.
“Generally men are not invited into this space, but I think it’s really exciting at least. It’s an important part of the story,” she said.
It was an all-women's service.
“So this is the women's assembly, and we conduct a spiritual service every Sunday that's just for women by women for women."
This gives worshipers a chance to discuss certain topics and religious beliefs in an alternative setting.
This isn’t totally uncommon. Sometimes religious practices are separated by gender. Earlier in the day, only men made special offerings to the guru. Occasionally during worship, men and women sit separately from each other. Sometimes there is even a specific line that divides the two.
Wisconsin Shirdi Sai
The final house of worship in this cluster of Dharmic temples is just about three miles away from BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir. It’s called Wisconsin Shirdi Sai.
Devotees worship the guru Sai Baba. Members here also used to practice at HTW until they were able to grow the community and raise the funds to buy their own temple - similar to members of BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir.
Wisconsin Shirdi Sai is located inside of a Christian Church in the Town of Pewaukee. The members saved this church from being torn down and turned into apartments when they bought it and opened it as a Hindu temple in 2017.
They tried finding locations in towns around southeastern Wisconsin, but none of them worked out. It was a coincidence they settled so close to the other temples.
“Went to find the location for Baba. We went to the New Berlin. We went to Franklin. So many places. So many other places. We just looked around and nothing worked out,” Satya Karri, the president of the temple, said.
For the roughly 1,200 members, it doesn’t matter that they practice Hinduism inside what used to be a Christian Church. Ultimately, it’s just a building with four walls. The members here made it into a sacred space for them.
“There is no restriction at all. Even this temple. If anybody walking in (is) Muslim, Christian, anybody, so it’s free to come in and take blessings from the Baba. So there are no such restrictions here, so that’s why (the) church is totally fine. No restrictions,” Karri said.
The members of Wisconsin Shirdi Sai are further emblematic of the fluidity within Hinduism. While each sect has specific beliefs and teachers, just like followers of Sai Baba, congregants can float from one of the three other Hindu temples in the area. There are no restrictions. They are all following the same core principles to reach the same goal.
“So the religious perspective, we are all Hindus. There is no separation between the Hindu temple, the devotees going (Hindu Temple of Wisconsin) to do the Hindu rituals versus the people coming here to do the same rituals. There’s no difference at all. Me, being a Hindu, I go to (Hindu Temple of Wisconsin). I come here too, so there is no difference,” Karri said.
A Growing Community
Pewaukee became an unlikely spiritual and cultural hub for Wisconsin Hindus and Jains - partially due to convenience and coincidence. And it's the connections and collaborative efforts that have allowed the community to grow considerably as more temples are being built.
“Yes, there is another temple coming to New Berlin Wisconsin. It’s called Lakshmi Narasimha Temple,” Hindu Temple of Wisconsin President Vijayapal said.
One Last Question
As is tradition, the last word is always given to the tour guide of the My Block story.
Before that happens, though, here is how you can be part of the series. Reach out to James Groh to nominate your neighborhood or a neighbor to be featured in the next story. You can fill out this submission form or contact him at james.groh@tmj4.com or call/text at (414) 254-8145. The series has explored how rural communities foster neighborhood communities, how Hmong culture in Wisconsin is changing, how Latino immigrants adapt to life in Milwaukee, how Milwaukee neighborhoods are trying to reverse negative stereotypes, and many more themes.
Now, back to the woman who helped set up this tour of four different temples, Shireesha Vijayapal.
"Is there anything else you’d like to add about the Hindu community in Pewaukee?” TMJ4 Reporter James Groh asked.
“Yes, that we are all together. All our Hindu community is together in all these four temples that we visited with you James.”
It’s about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for “TMJ4” on your device.
Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.