Gopinath claims that it all began when they discovered a strange stone while the foundation for the house was being laid. The stone had three figures on it, which he says looked very much like images of gods and smelt of sandalwood.
Gopinath decided to leave it alone and covered the pit up and continued building his house beside it. He claims that after that he had recurring dreams of elephants and so he decided to have a large rosewood statue of an elephant made for his house. After that, he ceased to get those dreams and was gifted with a large idol of Goddess Lakshmi. “I was advised by a priest that with an idol like that, I must perform pooja for it everyday. When I agreed to build a small temple, the priest led me to a spot where he felt the temple should be built. Surprisingly it was the same spot where the stone lay buried,” shares Gopinath.
He then decided to build the temple, but the task was not easy. He spent more than a year with various designs, as he felt none of them suited the temple. Finally he decided on the Kolhapur style of gopuram for the modest temple. The temple turned out well and Gopinath even appointed a full time priest.
According to him, the temple is perhaps one of the first to be blessed by two highly placed priests — the Sringeri Swami and the Kanchi Swami. Says an elated Gopinath, “Both of them said almost the same thing — they believe that Mahalakshmi and Saraswati are both present in this temple.”
Gopinath has opened the temple to public and he says a lot of people claim that praying at the temple has brought them good fortune. He is organising a Sahasra Chandi Homa on Vijayadashami with 1001 couples. The temple will be open the entire day on the occasion of Varmahalakshmi pooja.
The Kempapura Sri Mahalakshmi Temple is located at #45, ‘Keerthana’, Hebbal-Kempapura. For details call: 98454-61205.