Chapter XII

The ancients considered temples as not only Devamandirs, but also as Vijnanamandirs. They knew that God can be attained by Service, done consciously and with full knowledge of meaning. They felt that temples are Academies of the higher learning where man developed the real culture of the mind. They knew that the House of God in the heart of Man will be as clean and holy as the House of God was, in the hamlet where he lived. You can guess the nature of the inhabitants of a village by simply observing the village temple and its environs. "If the temple is kept clean and with holiness in the atmosphere, you can infer that the pure villagers are full of the fear of sin, that they walk along the path of Goodness" so thought the ancients.

Such Divyajnanamandirs, such Atmopadesaalayas, such Institutions of Spiritual Inspiration, have today degenerated into places where 'offerings' are distributed, and picnic parties revel. Idlers gather in the precincts and play cards or dice or such other games. Kalipurusha sports in glee when such groups gather in the temples.

This is contrary to Dharma. The temple is the heart of the village; it should therefore be preserved, nourished, and nursed as befits the heart. Believe that God walks about in the temple; it is His Residence. All have a responsibility to preserve the holiness of that atmosphere, which confers the joy of serving the Lord. Believe that the temple is the heart of all. The day this is done, the Madhavathwa in man will shine forth as a jewel. This is the Truth, this is the reason, for all the cost and pain incurred in the construction of temples. Village authorities or Government agencies or Bhakthas themselves must make all arrangements needed to develop spiritual discipline and wisdom. Then only can man shine forth in divine splendour. This is not all. There are some ultra-modern critics who condemn the Gopuras etc., as so much waste of money. This reveals a total absence of far-sightedness; no one with a high ideal or an upward vision will make such a remark. If you dwell upon the significance of the Gopuram, you can realise how holy, how mysterious, how revealing, is its purpose. The Gopuram beckons to wayfarers who have lost their way, and who wander away from truth, "O ye mortals! Blinded by the fog of physical attachments and self-aggrandizing urges, overcome by the miasma of worldly desires which are fleeting and false, you have forgotten Me, the source and sustenance of you all. Look up to this eternal, ever pure, ever full tower of joy. Forgetting Me, you are wallowing in grief; you are pursuing the mirage in the desert sands. Come; have faith in the Ever-lasting Me. Struggle out of the darkness and enter the realm of Light, and come to the royal road of Santhi, that is the Path of Dharma. Come, Come, O Come."

Thus does Gopala call on all, with raised hands from aloft the line of house-tops in every village.

So, when seen through this more elevated insight, gopurams can be respected as conducive to the raising of human ideals and conduct. This is the principle underlying the construction of gopurams. Such high ideals inspire these structures. This is the true meaning, a meaning which can be experienced and felt. The light on top of the gopuram is the symbol of the Light which is the refuge of all, it is the representative of the unflickering inner lamp, lit at the self-same Flame; it is the Inner Illumination, gained by merging in Hari.

Temples are as oases in desert wastes, for those who have lost their way in the hot sands of grief and greed, they are Prasanthimandirs, Santhoshasadans, welcoming you to cool joyous Peace. The gopurams are guides to stricken wanderers; they hold aloft the Flag of the Name of God; all should be thankful to them for the service.

Really, many dull-witted moderns are puzzled at the purpose of all the constructions and conditions, conventions and customs, that revolve around the temple. They cannot grasp the significance of any reply that is beyond their limited understanding. A patient suffering from high fever will find even sweet things bitter; so too, those afflicted with the high fever of worldliness can never taste the real sweetness of truth. The fever must subside; then, they can appreciate the value of things of the spirit.

What is the goal of human life? What is the objective that man must realise? Is it just eating, drinking, sleeping, tasting a little joy and grief and finally dying, like any bird or beast? No, certainly not. A little thought will reveal that it is not so. The goal is Brahma-Sakshathkara, the realisation of the Absolute, of Brahmam! Without that, no man can attain Santhi. He must win that Bliss of Divine Grace. However much one strives to extract happiness from the multiplicity of worldly things, the quantum of satisfaction is very little; as for Peace or Santhi, one finds its impossible to get it through things of the world. The mind can have Santhi only when it merges in the Absolute Consciousness, the Primal Cause, the Unchanging Existence.

Even the most comfortable house, equipped with all the luxuries man craves for, even heaps of treasure, are helpless to endow one with Santhi. That can be won only by surrender to God, who is the very core of one's being, the very source of all life and living. Consider this: Are those lucky enough to possess wealth, gold, property and comfort having Santhi? Nor is this all. Are men highly learned, persons of extraordinary beauty, of super-human physical strength - are these at least at peace with themselves and the world? What is the reason for the misery of even these?

The reason is: they have forgotten the Divine basis of Creation, they have ignored the one Absolute Underlying Principle. All lives, lived without Faith, and Bhakthi to the One Supreme Overlord, are despicable; lives spent without tasting the Nectar of the Divine Principle are all wasted chances.

It is really a strange turn of events...! Your Genuine basis, the Fountain of your joy, your Ultimate fundamental, the Paramartha Principle has become for you something outside and beyond, unnecessary, unsought for; the world with its tinsel tawdriness has become near and native, necessary and desirable.

Denying themselves the bliss derivable from surrender to the Lord, men madly run about in the name of Bhakthi, pursuing sacred spots, sages and sacred rivers. A modicum of genuine Bhakthi will awaken them from this delusion. It will teach them that man can obtain Santhi only by returning to one's native home, viz., God. Until then, homesickness will haunt him.

Temples are invitations to that home, signboards directing man there. On one occasion, Sri Ramachandra spoke thus to those assembled to hear Him on the Chitrakuta Hill: "Dawn breaks and dusk falls. With dawn, greed awakens in man; with the dusk, lust gets hold of him. Is this to be your way of life? Is this to be your goal? With the passing of every single day, man has wasted one precious chance. He has taken one more step towards the Cave of Death. But does he ever bewail his lot? Does he sorrow over the wasted day?" Note, how worthy of remembrance this message is!

It is because of such reminders that the culture of Bharathavarsha has God as its central theme. "Bha-ratha" means the land that has "rathi" or attachment to Bha-ga-vaan or God. If westerners renounce everything in their single-minded devotion to the discovery of the laws that govern the objective world, here in Bharathavarsha men renounced everything for the discovery and experience of the Absolute, which is the Prime Cause of the Universe and which, if known, confers unshakable Santhi.

Westerners renounce for the evanescent; here, the renunciation is for the Eternal. This is for Vijnana, theirs is for Ajnana. This is Thapas, theirs is Thamas. That is why even today, the splendour of the rishis, sages and yogis shines through the corridor of centuries on the faces of men; if sometimes the shadows of despair, despondency and discontent flit across those faces in this land, it is a forewarning of the decline of faith in Dharma itself.

Temples are intended to instruct men in the art of removing the veil of attachment that lies over their heart. That is the reason why Thyagaraja cried in the temple at Tirupathi, "Remove the veil within me, the veil of pride and hate". The fog of Maya melted away before the rays of Grace and so, he could discern and describe the image of Divine Charm in the song, "Sivudano Maadhavudano" and drink deep the sweetness of that Form. The churning of his heart by the Divine Formula produced the spark of Jnana, and it grew into the Flame of Realisation.

Not only in this Kaliyuga but even in the earlier yugas, the Kritha, the Thretha and the Dwarpara, Namasmarana has been the secret of liberation from bondage. The temple is the place where Namasmarana is natural and automatic and undisturbed. Therefore, going to it is imperative, especially in the Kali age when the air is full of wicked and ungodly thoughts.

That is the reason why in the Gita, Krishna has declared that "Among Yajnas, I am the Namayajna" the Yajna that has the sacrificial beast offered in the sacred fire, the animal Ajnana itself. For the cure of grief, for the earning of joy, temples where the Name of God can be remembered are very essential. "For Bliss, Smarana: For Smarana, temples", that is the series. There is nothing more fruitful than this, more blissful or more charming. "Having the greatly simple Name, the ever available Tongue, and the Temple where His Enchanting Image is installed so that you can sing His Glory in an exalted Voice... why should man hasten towards the gates of hell?" wondered Vyasa. His wonder was born out of his own experience of the efficacy of the Name and its Smarana. So too, Tulsidas! He lived constantly in the temple and sang of the joy he tasted. "Alas! When men give up the name and the Temple, and seek peace and joy in other places, I am reminded of the foolishness of those who forsake the rich and tasty fare on their plates and beg with outstretched hands for the leavings on others' plates", he lamented.

Even in Vedic Discipline, the Name and the need to make the mind stay thereon are emphasised as of utmost importance. "Om ithyekaaksharam Brahmam", "Om - that One Word is Brahmam" declare the Aryan Rishis. Examine, if you like, whether any Saint was saved, without the Name of the Lord or the House of the Lord! For Gouranga, the Jagannatha-mandir was the inspiration and the refuge. For Jayadeva, it was the Radhakrishnamandir. For Nandanar, it was the Temple at Chidambaram which provided the source of Realisation. Vallabhacharya, Kabir, Nanak, Meera, Radha, Ramanuja, Madhwacharya, Sankaracharya, Namdev, Tulsidas, Thyagaraja all attained Divine Vision and what is more, Divine Wisdom itself, in and through temples. What need is there to dilate more? Even in recent times, was it not in the Kali temple built by Rani Rasmani that Ramakrishna Paramahamsa tasted Divine Bliss and discovered his identity?

To misuse such temples, to spoil the sacred atmosphere of their precincts, to forget their holy mission, to decry the conventions and customs prevalent there, and to pave the way for their decline and desecration - this is undoubtedly Adharma, and not Dharma. Those who do these things have neither inner nor outer light; they are in utter darkness. Temple-worship, the company of sages, the recital of the Name, the adoration of the image or symbol - these are external sources of Light. Dhyanam, thapas, manana - these are the sources of inner illumination. Devoid of both, how can men experience the vision of Divine Glory?

No wonder Thulasi Das Goswami once declared: "Do you require light inside the house as well as outside? Then place the lamp on the doorstep! So too, do you desire to spread the illumination of Santhi outside yourself as well as inside? Then place the Name of the Lord on the tongue, which is the doorstep of your personality! The lamp on the tongue will not flicker or fade or be put out by any storm. It will confer Santhi on you, as well as on all whom you meet, the entire world".