|
|
|
|
Articles: Devotion | | Importance of a Temple in Hindu Religion | |
|
| Dear Mrs. sharmila Sanka
You wrote 'we have so many Gods who help us practice unity in diversity'. I wonder whether this is really happenning ? Even within Hinduism we are fighting on caste lines. If we are given so many Gods with the aim that there will be 'unity in diversity', then their purpose is lost today.
Then you mentioned 'hundreds of people gather at a single place and pray with all their hearts. This is the reason why the idol made of stone acquires lots of powers'.
I would like to differ here.
Why does one go to the temple ? I don't want to sound like a spiritualist here. Seeing from a lay man's point of view, when one goes to a temple, one gets some peace of mind and then he thinks about God.....perhaps thanks him. Now, how is this atmosphere in temple different from the surroundings and how does it give him that peace of mind ?
You remember, before a mere sculpture of the Lord is made into a sacred idol, it is taken through a process of charging the idol with divine power(s). The sages of yore did have the power (of course in varying degrees) to charge the idol, after which it was called santcified and only then the people used to feel the atmosphere in and around the temple as 'calm and peaceful'.
So the whole crux behind construction of a temple is not the huge donations, or labour etc, but the very important activity of converting a building into a temple by a sage of some acheivement. Today it is hardly a doubt that there are very few, if not any, sages of calibre. In this context you can see the futility of constructing just a huge/costly building without being able to transform it into a temple.
My feeling is that a few thousands of people gathering at a single place and praying.....cannot charge the idol or the place. I feel it is not a mere arithmatic that the devotion of all the people added together equals some kind of Godly devotion/power. If this were true then the countless number of 'yagnas' performed by so many 'pious' people for world peace cannot go waste.
The need of the time is for every human being to somehow get divinised so that every one becomes a moving/talking temple. Please don't mis-understand me. I am not a iconoclast, but tring to put things in a more clear prespective.
Imagine, if somehow we can come in contact with a sage of calibre, then instead of charging the temple with his yogic powers (so that people visiting the temple feel the peace for thousands of years after the charge), if the sage can transmit to you directly, then a miracle can happen, in the sense that we now become divinised and pure and the need for going to temple tapers away.
My feeling is that the epic 'Bhagavath Geetha' which is a huge volume was not told orally by Lord Krishna to Arjuna on the war field, where war was about to start. Because it takes atleast a few hours even to recite it. Lord Krishna would have transmitted his yogic power to Arjuna and in a few moments Arjuna would have become enlightened and the war started...............
Thanks for the oppurtunity and I hope you will take my comments in a positive spirit.....
mpvramana@bhelhyd.co.in
Posted by: Mr. mpvramana At: 16, Apr 2004 5:10:58 PM IST
Hi every one....sorry to convey few words very late.I actually wrote this article for HANWA.Hindu Association for North West Arkansas.we are planning to build a temple here in Arkansas and so i wrote it.Sorry if you find some of the sentences out of context.
Posted by: Mrs. sharmila Sanka At: 26, Mar 2004 7:32:11 AM IST
| |
|
|
 |
| Advertisements |
|
|
|
|
| Advertisements |
|
