NASHUA – Unbeknownst to many, a world-renowned Hindu humanitarian visited Nashua last week.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar visited the Hindu Temple of New Hampshire on Taggart Drive on Friday, Aug. 6.

The visit was just a piece of increasing prominence the region’s previously unseen Hindu population has planned. Those plans culminate in a permanent temple to serve southern New Hampshire’s Hindus to be built in the next couple of years.

Shankar founded the Art of Living Foundation in the early 1980s, a nonprofit humanitarian agency active in 140 countries. He has traveled the globe preaching his message, one that encourages nonviolence and togetherness, according to the Art of Living Foundation’s website.

On Friday, Shankar answered questions from about 200 people who packed the Taggart Drive temple. He also took time to bless objects attendees handed over to him.

The visibility of the region’s Hindus has been on the rise in recent years and, particularly in recent weeks.

“There’s a lot going on in Nashua,” Dhanashree Kulkarni, the Art of Living Foundation’s media and advertising coordinator.

The foundation will hold another city-wide event later this month. Nashua Meditates takes place Saturday, Aug. 28, from 10 a.m.-1 p.m., at Bicentennial Elementary School, Kulkarni said.

The event will bring people together to meditate on world peace. Experts will also teach participants special breathing and yoga techniques that can be incorporated into daily life. The event will finish with a guided meditation, Kulkarni said.

Next month, the foundation will offer a three-day yoga and meditation course that Kulkarni called a “shower for your mind.” It will also teach breathing techniques and daily mantras you can use to focus and unclutter the mind, she said.

That course will be at the Hunt Memorial Building at 6 Main St., in Nashua from 6:30-9:30 p.m. Sept. 16-19.

The Hindu Temple of New Hampshire has big plans of its own that founders hope will come to fruition in the next couple of years.

Five members of the Sri Lakshmi Temple in Ashland, Mass., split from that temple five years ago and founded the Hindu Temple of New Hampshire. In 2008, they began renting the space in a business condominium on Taggart Drive.

Since then they have been raising money – more than $100,000 so far – to build a traditional Hindu temple in Greater Nashua, according to the group’s president, Subramoni Duraiswami.

The need for such a facility is significant, Duraiswami said. The temple is open for only a few hours every day now and at least five or six families come every night.

The temple would be the only one in New Hampshire. There are an estimated 3,000-4,000 Hindu families in southern New Hampshire, he said.

The group is looking for about 10 acres in Nashua, or nearby, and hopes construction will be completed in the next two years, Duraiswami said.

Recent events gaining more visibility, he said, is partly an effort to help more people. Anyone is welcome at the temple, Duraiswami said.

“We want to let people know we have a temple,” he said. “People have needs and we want them to know we can serve them.”

The Nashua temple and the Art of Living Foundation are not affiliated but partner for certain events since they have similar missions.

“Some of the values we propagate are the same values the temple is looking for,” Kulkarni said.

The temple welcomes anyone from the community and has welcomed its partnership with the Art of Living Foundation.

“We want to bring everyone with similar thoughts and give them peace and help them however we can,” he said. “We want to partner with everyone to make your life better.”

More information about Nashua Meditates and the Art of Living Foundation can be found at www.artofliving.org.

More information about the Hindu Temple of New Hampshire, including its plans to build a permanent temple and its hours and Hindu celebrations, can be found at www.hindutemplenh.org.

Joseph G. Cote can be reached at 594-6415 or jcote@nashuatelegraph.com.