Dharma Vahini - Post 22

TEMPLE WORSHIP

Arousing feelings during worship

Some very important points brought about by Swami related to Temple worship are highlighted below:-

• Feelings aroused by and during worship must be sweet and melodious and must, imperceptibly, transform the low desires and cravings of matter-bound people; they must not awaken  the latent animal instincts of people. 
• Take this example: Thyagaraja forgot that he should go to bed in his enthusiasm to see that Rama was put to bed. Here, you should infer not that Thyagaraja made Rama sleep in a swing but that Rama seated Thyagaraja on the swing of devotion and gently swung him to sleep (or the forgetfulness of all things material).
• Instead of remembering your child in its cradle when you swing your chosen Lord (Ishta-devatha) in the silver or golden cradle, you must cultivate the attitude of seeing your chosen deity, Rama or Krishna, in the cradle when you swing your own child in it. 
• So too, when you stand before the installed God, you must get confirmed in the installation of Brahman in your own heart as the real base of your existence, knowledge, and bliss. It is to instill this feeling that the rites and ceremonies of temple worship have been organized.

Swami continues....

So, do not take the divine couples Sita-Rama, Radha-

Krishna, Lakshmi-Narayana, and Parvathi-Parameswara in the temple as “pitiable couples” in a miserable existence in the cramped sanctorum, subsisting on food given by the worshipper and slaking thirst with the drinks that the worshipper offers. 

• Thus, The worshippers and the carping unbelievers are both ignorant of the real principles of temple-worship. That is the reason for their conduct. You should be cultured enough to avoid the lower worldly path.

• The temple should not be valued on secular principles at all; only the attitude of devotion can  beautify feelings that drag you down to the lower worldly path.

It all depends on the progress of your mental faculties! They must reach the supreme level. The Lord is immanent everywhere; He is capable of everything; He is the Universal Witness; there is nothing He does not know. These truths must be taken as axiomatic, and all rituals and disciplines (sadhanas) must be arranged and interpreted in conformity with those truths. 

Love.

Continued.......