Places of worship - the significance

The temple is not a flight of fancy of man. Its roots lie deep in man's inner unconscious. Right from ancient times, wherever man has lived in whichever stage, he has constructed something resembling a temple somewhere close by. There is no race on earth which has not built a temple, a church, a masjid and so on. There is no resemblance between the arrangement and design of a temple and a church but the inner aspiration and urge of man whether Hindu or Christian remains the same. Another point to note is that the universal urge to build places of worship lies only in man. Animals build only dwellings, shelter but no temples. Without man having a deep awareness of the God, a temple could not be built. It is necessary to make an inquiry into the significance of building a temple. Just like we build guesthouses for guests, the idea of building temples must have been conceived in a moment, when the divine was not a figment of imagination but a living experience.

The temples function as receptive instruments. Though godliness and human beings are present everywhere, only during special circumstances within us do we become attuned to that godliness. So temples serve as centers of receptivity, to enable us to feel the divine in existence and to become spiritually elevated. Patterns and arrangements i.e. temple, masjid or church do not matter...the ultimate purpose is same. The temples in India are constructed of 3-4 patterns. The temple domes are based on the model of the sky. The domes (small, semi circular prototypes of the sky) are constructed so that the resonance of the prayers can bounce back on us. The dome throws back the prayers and chanting done under its canopy. The sound is not lost in the vast sky. The purpose is that when anyone chants intensely, the dome makes the sound reverberate forming a circle of the echo. Such a sound circle is a blissful experience. With the circle formation, we become the recipient as well and the divine enters into us. All thoughts come to a stop. The bells and gongs outside temples serve the purpose of bring back our attention (if it drifts) to the circle of sound created by the vibration of chanting. It is akin to the ripples created by throwing a stone in the pond. The ringing of the bell creates a discontinuity in our normal chain of thought and alertness.

Certain flowers and incense are used to maintain harmony of the temple. For e.g. in a mosque only "lobhan", a kind of fragrant resin is used as incense and in a temple, only dhoop and agarbatti. All these have a connection with sound. The sound of Allah has an inner harmony with the fragrance of lobhan. These links were discovered through the inner search for enlightenment. Similarly, the amount of light to be used, whether to use kerosene or ghee and other external aids. It may not be easy to explain the difference between a kerosene light and ghee light if you have not experimented with the same. With light created by burning kerosene, our eyes begin to burn and become tired and painful. With ghee the same become cool and soothed. All these external aids are just parallels. And when a place of worship has been provided with them, it becomes charged with the vibrations. Hence the stipulation that no one should go to a temple without bathing. Taking a cold bath breaks the mental associations. In fact in old days, silk clothes had to be worn because silk helps to generate body electricity.

With all these precautions and arrangements, the places of worship become charged and also affect anyone even passing by with its magnetic field. For e.g. it is said about Mahavir that within a certain radius of him - wherever he might be - it was impossible to commit violence. It was his charged field - a walking temple. We need places of worship like temples where we can make our offerings and receive something in return. Man always forgets. What is sublime and valuable, we forget; what is trivial and commonplace we remember continuously. We have to make an effort to remember God but our desires and passions are present all the time. Going downhill is easy; going uphill is always difficult. The temples help keep the inner search alive. Very few of us are naturally inspired to seek; most only feel inspired when we actually see things. So when we see godliness personified within the shape of a temple, something of it lingers in our minds. This is especially so for people who cannot visualize the unmanifest divine. A temple is a place for rest and relaxation where you can find relief and peace. It is a source of inspiration.