Sri Venkateswara Swami (Balaji) Temple of Greater Chicago

According to the temple's history, thousands of devotees from the mid-western states, especially the Chicago area, used to travel to Pittsburgh to see Sri Venkateswara. The effort was spiritually rewarding but made frequent visits difficult, and the situation continued until 1985. In that year nine families donated 20 acres of land with a farmhouse in Aurora as the site for a Balaji temple (Sri Venkateswara Swami Temple website; Illinois House Resolution HR0425).

The Illinois House of Representatives, in resolution HR0425 of the 97th General Assembly, congratulated the temple's devotees on its 25th anniversary and recorded that the grand anniversary celebrations were to be held from 29 May to 5 June 2011 (Illinois General Assembly).

A scholarly overview of Hindu Chicago from UCLA's Center for India and South Asia notes that the Aurora temple was built in the mid-1980s and that artisans and sculptors trained in India helped to decorate it (UCLA Center for India and South Asia).

A Chicago Tribune report from October 2006, republished by Hindu Press International, described Diwali at the temple: it expected more than the 7,000 worshippers of the previous year, perhaps 10,000 over the weekend, and said that on an ordinary weekend the temple's kitchen prepared food for about 1,500 people (Hindu Press International, citing the Chicago Tribune).

Architecture and sacred features

The temple's history says the design was prepared by Padmasri M. Muthiah Sthapathy, a noted authority on temple construction in India, working with Subhash Nadkarni, a Chicago architect and Balaji devotee. It describes the result as a blend of ancient shilpa shastra and modern architectural technology, made to meet agamic space requirements as well as local building codes and structural standards (Sri Venkateswara Swami Temple website; Illinois House Resolution HR0425).

One feature the temple highlights is that pradakshina (circumambulation) is possible inside the building, not only around the main deity but around all the major shrines. The temple also says the design later served as a model for other temples built in the United States; that is the temple's own statement, repeated in the Illinois resolution that quotes it (Sri Venkateswara Swami Temple website; Illinois House Resolution HR0425).