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THE SIGNIFICANCE OF TEMPLES
A temple is not merely a building. It is the abode of the Lord.
A temple’s strength is not in its bricks.
Its fortitude comes from the dedication of its members.
A temple is not held together by plaster and mud.
Its glue is the piety and devotion of the community.
A temple is not simply a place we visit.
It should be the axis around which our lives revolve.
People may ask, “If God is everywhere, if every living being
is a manifestation of Brahma, then why do we need to go
to temple?” There are many reasons. The most important
reason is that a temple is not only the home of God, but it
is a concentration of divine energy.
tower (vimanam) represents His head, the door of the
sanctum is His mouth, the entrance tower (raga gopurum)
is His holy foot, and other parts represent His limbs. And,
most importantly, deep inside the main structure is the
sanctum sanctorum (garbha graha), which is the Heart
of the Lord, and it is there that we place the deities.
Ancient rishis and saints could realize God through their
meditations. They lived high in the Himalayas or in
secluded forests. There were few distractions, and their lives
were focused on one thing: attaining the divine vision.
They, therefore, did not need temples. Their world was their
temple. However, today, our lives are flooded with material
desires, with mundane tasks, with logistic concerns. We
must get up each day and go to earn a living to feed our
families. We must live in a world that indoctrinates us to
crave only sensual pleasures and material wealth. It is very
difficult for this world to seem like a temple. Therefore, we
must have a place which is sacred, a place which is holy, a
place in which our sole purpose is becoming one with God,
a place in which we hang up our daily concerns and
troubles like coats at the door. We must have a place which
focuses our mind on the true meaning in life. The temple
serves this purpose.
During the installation of the deities (Prana Pratishtha
ceremony), the murtis become powerful manifestations
of God. The priests chant special Vedic mantras and
perform special sacred rituals which endow these deities
with divine attributes and powers. Therefore, praying
before a deity in a temple may give us a greater sense of
A university student may claim he does not need to go to
being in the presence of God than praying in our own
the library to do his homework – his dorm room is a fine
homes.
place to study. Theoretically, that is true. The books are
the same, the material to be learned is the same. However,
Additionally, the temple building itself is constructed in such
we know that in a dorm room he will be tempted
a way as to maximize the concentration of positive, sacred
constantly by ringing phones, by knocks at the door, by
and peaceful energies. The actual structure of a temple is
loud music, by the desire to gossip with his friends in the
said to represent the resting body of the Lord. The sanctum
hallway.
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