A visit to a place of worship

Most of us visit places of worship. Some may question as to why we should got a place of worship when God is everywhere. The same question was posed to a famous spiritual person a long time back. His reply was that, just because a cow has milk in its body, you cannot get it from its ears. Similarly, though God is everywhere, there are certain places, which are most appropriate for worshipping. This could be a temple, mosque, church whatever be it.

From a temple perspective, most Indian temples have three doors before the sanctum sanctorum.  These doors represent the body, mind and intellect. As we enter the first door, we should give up the feeling of identification with the body, which is a vehicle through which we are drawn to the outside world of sense objects. As we enter through the second door, we should give up the identification with the mind, which is the vehicle through which we experience likes and dislikes and various emotions, both good and bad. The third door, which we have to open, is the intellect. This is the vehicle through which we get a feeling of our status, affiliations etc. 

As indicated above, the sanctum sanctorum is seen when we cross the third door. Similarly, the consciousness or life principle is that which exists when the intellect is also crossed.  In the Indian temples, there is an idol of God in the sanctum sanctorum. Many people who do not understand the symbolism, have become idol breakers, either in the real sense as evidenced by the idol destruction done by the invaders or by the intellectuals, who feel it is foolish to worship a stone.  This idol represents the consciousness or life principle.  Normally the temples are dark and the idol cannot be seen. This represents the fact that God or consciousness cannot be seen or attained easily.

In the temple, the priest lights up the Arti or light and moves it around the idol and then only we can see the idol. This is symbolic of the spiritual principle that only through the knowledge of discrimination, which helps remove ignorance of reality, the consciousness can be attained.  The priest after doing the arti brings it around and we place our hands on it and touch ourselves. This is to symbolize that we are using the light of discrimination to awaken the divinity within ourselves. The priest brings the vermilion powder and flowers and hands over to the devotees. We apply the vermilion powder to our forehead and the women put the flower in their hair.  We are applying what was applied to the idol to ourselves. The powder and flowers were used to worship the idol and now we are applying that to ourselves. The symbolism of applying the vermilion powder or wearing the flower is that we are recognizing and worshipping the divinity within ourselves.

The priest as he does the arti uses a bell and keeps ringing it. Other devotees use other bells or any other instrument and beat the tabla or any other instrument. Chanting is done at a high pitch drowning out almost any noise. The whole purpose of so much “noise’ is to prevent our ears getting attracted to other sense objects and help us focus on God or consciousness. In the temple, normally camphor is burnt and its smell overpowers any other smell. Again, the purpose is to ensure that our nose does not get attracted by any other smell and remains focused on God.

So, we should understand that the whole purpose of a visit to a temple is to forget our false sense of identity with the body/mind/intellect. Once our ego is dissolved, we are that much nearer to God. It is said that Man – Ego = God.  Hence a visit to the temple helps dissolve our ego and brings us closer to the Divinity, which is our true nature.

As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.

I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.


1. My Humble Understanding  Of Spirituality


My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

2. Attain Infinite Bliss

Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide

3. The Spirit Of Spirituality

The Spirit Of Spirituality