Peaceful Places: Hindu Temple of Tampa

A few days ago I posted a poem dedicated to my friends in an Artist's Way class I attended. The purpose of this course is to teach techniques for freeing our creative spirit, guidance I certainly needed to regroup myself and return to that which I love: writing. One of several techniques is to take oneself on an "artist date," which can be anything from spending quiet time on a park bench, to rummaging around in antique stores, browsing in a museum or crafts store, buying crayons or paints, or whatever else calls out and sounds like a good idea. One of my dates was taking a two-hour painting class (I'll tell you later about my "two-hour Monet").

But the one I want to share with you now is the group tour I took from St. Petersburg to Tampa, to visit the Hindu Temple of Florida This opportunity was provided by a local chapter of OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute), a national organization which encourages members to explore interests, and to keep learning and stretching. So, as a member, I selected this half-day trip as one of my "dates."

Early in the morning before leaving the house, I wrote down my expectations, having never been to India, or never before explored any Hindu temples elsewhere. My experiences with large centers of worship include cathedrals in Europe and mosques in Istanbul, Turkey, but no interiors of synagogues, or any of Hindu or Buddhist temples.

So, based on limited experience, I presumed that the word "temple" signifies a large structure, with a soaring ceiling, the whole space feeling cavernous and echoing -- and that I would feel like a single small soul in a lofty space. I also envisioned lots of Sanskrit and god carvings and statues of those I'm somewhat familiar with -- Shiva, and perhaps, Ganesh. I imagined domes and Moorish- (or Islamic-) influenced window styles. I knew beforehand from the OLLI description that we would enter the temple through the tallest Hindu tower in the United States, and I pictured a literal tower - something akin to the Washington Monument, only highly decorated, or maybe something similar to an Islamic minaret. I also imagined fragrant and voluptuous gardens, with simple benches for meditation, here and there along soft paths; and water would be an important element, rounding out the sensory experience.

I rather missed the mark in almost all of this, to put it mildly.

As our bus approached the temple grounds, I could see that the temple did indeed look very large -- quite tall and ornate. Unfortunately, the temple's grounds are seeing new construction and are far different than what I had envisioned. Instead of gardens of flowers and trimmed paths, the area is an expanse of sand and sparse grass. A new "U"-shaped single-story block building sits across the yard, its open end facing the temple entrance. Still unfinished, it is somewhat plain and austere, though it does have shaded porches.

There was water, but it was outside the temple grounds, an adjacent pond surrounded by tangled wild growth and blocked off by a chain link fence. A fat white swan was nosing around in the weeds on the far shore, and he later startled our group when he took low flight and wing-slapped the pond's surface loudly before landing out of sight among the weeds on the bank closest to us.

The temple's tower is sloped and highly decorated, reminding me of Thai architecture. An immense osprey nest adds even more height. The first level (a few feet above ground) interior is comprised of social and educational rooms, restrooms, a room for our shoes, and an elevator accessed from a covered porch. I chose to take the front steps that lead through the tower and into the concrete patio area before the swinging glass front doors.

Front steps lead through the tower to the worship space.

I saw that the temple was encircled by a covered concrete walkway. Before entering the temple, our guide briefly described the statues of gods depicted in niches or presented on walls around and adjacent to the entrance, and answered questions about them.