Visiting temples and
offering prayers are an integral part of life for the practitioners of Hindu
religion. Mostly this is done as a custom or as something one is used to doing
rather than as a mandatory or thoughtful act. It is also a well known fact that temples and deities were a later
development in the Hindu religion, the fire sacrifices known as 'yagna' and
'yaaga' being the central forms of worship in Vedic times. The stream of
thoughts presented in the Upanishads
also are not oriented towards temple or deity worship. Given this, what does
someone, especially those who have embraced the philosophy presented in
Upanishads as the spiritual truth, see when visiting temples? I will offer you my perspectives.
In my view, a visit
to temple is nothing but another orchestration of the act of going into one's
own self during meditation. To understand this better, let's take a look at the
structure and organization of the temple.
At the outer
periphery of a temple, there are usually entry points called as 'gopura
dwaara'. The Sanskrit word 'go' stands for source of knowledge , 'pura' means a
residing place and 'dwaara' means a port. The 'gopura' are the entry points of
external knowledge just as the sense organs in our body are.
Having entered
through the 'gopura', one would see the 'dwaja stamba' or the flag post. This
is a declaration of the identity of the temple. As we peer into our own self,
the initial answers to the question of 'who am I' will be our sense of identify
in terms of name, relationships, societal position, gender etc. This is the
dwaja sthamba in our heart, some of which happen to be extremely tall!
Past this point, one
enters the 'praakaara' or the outer sanctorum. Going around the 'praakaara',
one would find installations of a number of
different deities. These deities represent the powers that make the
world function in a macro sense and the different organs in our body function, in a micro sense. Though we
identify with our body, we don't directly control the functioning of any of our
bodily organs. They all seem to somehow work magically in a coordinated fashion
to sustain life in our body. How many of us are constantly aware that the heart
pumps or the lungs breathe or that the
kidney does its work? In the 'praakaara', tracing a path around the inner
sanctorum, I would offer my gratitude and prayers to the deities to keep the
world and my body functioning uninterrupted!
One of the most
interesting installations found in the temples is the 'Nava Graha'. These are
traditionally considered as the nine 'planets' that influence the fortunes
based on their relative celestial position at the time of our birth. The
Sanskrit word 'graha' actually means to grasp or seize. Hence, I personally
like to think about them as nine different emotional states that grasp my mind
at different points of time. There is 'surya' or Sun representing bright,
positive, 'in the flow ' state of mind; 'chandra' or Moon denoting affection
and love; 'sukra' or Venus representing the mood to learn worldly knowledge;
'guru' or Jupiter representing the mood to immerse in spiritual learning;
'kuja' or Mars that represents active or combative mood; 'budha' or Mercury
that represents compassion; 'sani' or Saturn that represents gloom and negative
tendencies like envy; 'raahu' that
represents fear and 'ketu' that represents anxiety. Both raahu and ketu have no
bodies - raahu has only a head and ketu has only a lump and tail - just as our fears and anxiety are mostly
without a body of substance. Interestingly, each of the 'graha' also have a
color associated that correspond to the 'color of mind' for that emotional
state!
Around the
'praakaara', on the outer walls of the inner sanctorum, one would find images
of all kinds of worldly pleasure including sexual acts, either carved into
stone or placed as murals. The presence of such art in a place of worship is
something that has baffled many. The inner sanctorum represents what we
figuratively calls as our 'hridaya' or
heart. And, all our worldly sources of pleasure are imprinted into the outer
layers of 'hridaya'. Normally, we stop
at this outer wall of heart and do not go any further into the 'hridaya'. The
temple invites you to make that important entry into the depths of our own
heart, past the distractions of engagements in pleasure, because that is where
you will find the presence of divinity.
Entering into the
inner sanctorum, we find the 'garbha griha' or the sanctum sanctorum where the
main deity is located. The word 'garbha griha' literally means 'home of the
fetus'. In the middle of the 'hridaya'
is our essential being and from it emanates everything that we call as 'I'.
Hence, it is called as the 'garbha griha'.
If the deity of the
temple is Lord Siva, we find the 'siva
lingam' or 'sign of siva', located here. The 'siva lingam' has again been
wrongly interpreted as representing phallus. The 'lingam' is given its shape
based on the poetic Upanishad declaration 'angushta maatra purusho antaraatma',
'the inner dweller of all beings is of the size and shape of thumb'. The lingam
is usually located in a heart shaped or circular base indicating its placement
in the center of heart. The divinity residing in the core of our hearts is an
absolute that defies all means of direct perception. The 'siva linga' is an
attempt to express this absolute as a sign of its presence.
Standing in front of
the 'garbha griha', one should close the eyes offering prayers to the One, cosmic principle that is also very much within us, remembering the Upanishadic
statement 'avrittha chakshuhu amritatvamicchann', "eyes closed and turned
inward, desirous of immortality".
What is the benefit
of doing so? The Kathopanishad boldly declares:
'eko vasee sarva bhutaantharaatma
ekam roopam bahudhaa yah karoti
tam aatmastham yenupasyanthi dhiraah
teshaam sukham
saasvatam netareshaam'
" The single
controller of the entire universe, who is also the inner self of every single
being, produces all these different forms (found in the world) though he is of
(only one) single form. Permanent peace descends only on those who realize one's
own self to be That and not anyone else"
One of the most
common forms of worship of the deity is the 'abhisheka' process where the
priest pours different edible liquids on the deity, one after the other,
giving the deity a shower in each one of
them. This process has come under criticism recently for wastage of edible
food. The process of 'abhisheka' is
nothing but an orchestration of a spiritual practice that combines the
teachings of both Karma Yoga and Bhakti Yoga. The intend is to inspire the
devotee to consider all worldly experiences poured into one's own self as an
offering to the divinity present in the heart.
The key thing to note is that none of these liquids poured on the idol
stick to it and are washed away in the same way as the results of experiences
fail to stick to the soul of a person who has realized the innermost divinity.
Remember that a
visit to the temple is not an opportunity to rattle out worries and wishes but
rather an opportunity to have a wonderful spiritual experience. That experience
should enable us to take the journey into our own inner self and help to connect
with the cosmic principle of Brahman. Hope the next time you go to a temple, it
will be a different experience!
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