By Baba's blessing and Dr. Sundaram family tireless efforts, the Bhoomi puja for the temple was done on Feb 3, 2014 to mark the start of the foundation on a 3.3 acre space in Lake Worth, Florida.
The Temple consists of a main prayer hall for the deities with a meditation hall on the second floor. A multipurpose building with a kitchen, dining hall and three class rooms are constructed next to the Temple.
The main prayer hall will have the following deities. The main deity will be Shirdi Sai Baba. The other deities are Lord Dattathreya, Lord Ganesh, Lord Shiva, Annapoorani Amman, Lord Bala Murugan, Lord Venkateshwara, Veera Hanuman and the Nava Grahas. The white marble statue of Baba has already arrived. The statue was carved by one of the grandsons of the person who made the statue in Shirdi, India.
The Sundaram family lovingly calls Shirdi Sai Baba their Appa or Father and has been devoted to Baba their entire lives. They were looking for a suitable home for their beloved Father in the South Florida area. A 3.3 acre space in Lake Worth, FL crossed their path. It was practically a jungle with a house located deep inside the property and was owned by a single person. After receiving the divine signal, the family bought the property in 2010 and started the daunting task of clearing it. Also the house had to be remodeled for occupation. In total, it took more than a year-and-a-half for this process. The property then had to be zoned as a place of worship and a fellowship hall. As soon as the permit to construct a Temple was submitted, the neighbors started objecting to the project. After many public hearings, the objections were handled one-by-one and finally the permit was granted.
The first miracle was the property location being smack at the border between two cities, Greenacres and Lake Worth. When the water/sewer line had to be connected it would have been better to go through Greenacres. But, who would give permission, and how would you connect them? In the nick of time, a house came on sale which was just behind the temple, another miracle. The Sundaram family bought it with the idea of making it the priest quarters. It also solved the water and sewer connection problem. With that connection all the houses in the Lake Worth side of the temple also got city water and a sewer connection. They have been managing with ground water and a septic tank all along.
The Temple property is now annexed to the city of Greenacres. The road leading to the Temple was only a dirt road. The Sundaram family agreed to shoulder a major burden in funding the road project. The city has now agreed to pitch in a share of the cost. Baba works in mysterious ways. Some of the officers working for the city were willing to cooperate with the venture. Assembling the architect, structural engineer and general contractor team was the next task.
Mr. Vilas Parab who was the architect for the Shirdi Sai Temple in New York agreed to do the architectural design and the plan. The Structural engineer is Mr. Raj, who is in West Palm Beach, helped them with the construction of the building. Mr. Venkatesh, the building contractor worked alongside the project manager. As the first step towards construction, a perimeter wall had to be raised along the North and the West side of the property to clearly demark the neighboring houses and the Temple. The property was leveled and prepared for a variety of inspections and tests by the city.
