Special Lecture - Importance of Temples

The special lecture on day-2 of Balavihar Summer Camp 2018 was from Sandhya Didi on “Importance of Temples”, where she walked through the evolution of human from Animal Man -> Man Man -> God Man.

She touched upon the following very eloquently with visuals
  • God came into existence out of fear and wonderment. As we are in the journey of Man-Man to God-Man, there is a need for super power God.
  • Many magnificent temples were built when mankind felt that we need to be specially together
  • Idol is the concentration of all the super natural power & positive energy in one particular form
  • Essentials parts of a temple
  • Similarity between structure of a temple & Human body
  • Types of Idols in Temple & Idol posture
  • Pooja has to be done in temple everyday to activate 5 senses
    Let's see some of them in detail

Essential parts of a temple

  • Garbhagraha - Sanctom Sanctorm - the innermost sanctum of a temple where resides the murti of the primary deity of the temple
  • Antarala - Main Corridor - for the Prohits to enter Garbhagraha
  • Mukhamantapa - Hall - the place where devotees stand and pray
  • Mahamantapa - Hall of Arts - where cultural events happen
  • Vahana - Place for Gods vehicle - This shows that we treat nature as god and give equal importance to plants & animals in the forms of vehicles & offerings.
    The energy flows like this
    Cosmos -> Vahana -> Idol -> Human to become God Man
  • Dwajasthambha - Pole with flags - to concentrate & bring all the energy from cosmos
  • Bali Peedham - Place for daily offerings 
  • Gopuram - The entry point of a temple - Ideally its in the form of fire to burn all the negative thoughts of devotees before they enter to worship the shrine with pure heart & soul.

Types of Idols in Temple

  • Main idol
  • Ganesha idol
  • Dwarapalakas
  • Vahanas
  • Parivara Devatas
  • Idols on Vimana Gopura
  • Idols on the Entrance Gopura
  • Utsav Murthy

Idol Postures

  • Soumya Roopa - Godess Lakshmi & Saraswathi
  • Rudra Roopa - Godess Kali, Lord Veerabadra
  • Standing - Lord Subramaniya
  • Sitting - Lord Dhakshinamurthy 
  • Sleeping - Lord Venkateshwara
  • Achala (fixed) - Moola Vigraha
  • Chala (movable) - Utsava Murthy
  • Chalachala (partially movable & imovable) - Hude idols used in Ratha Yatra

Temple & Community

  • Utsava Murthy, the idols made of metals & used for processional & ritualistic purposes, is taken around from the temple on important days or daily.
  • Rathotsava is done on very special days
  • Jathre - Ratha's of many temples come together and thousands of devotees gather to take blessings.

Visit Temple to Activate 5 Senses

Pooja has to be done everyday in temples to activate 5 senses
  • Smell - Nose - Doopam (incense sticks / agarbati)
  • Touch - Skin - Gandha 
  • Vision - Eye - lamp 
  • Taste - Tongue - Theertha & Prasad 
  • Sound - Ears - Bell (ghante) 

    Thanks to Sandhya Didi for making the children's initial steps to the Spiritual journey more stronger.

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