Thus Spake the Divine - Cleanliness in Temples

Thus Spake the Divine

Cleanliness in Temples

Nowadays, you see new temples rising in every street corner. There are also many temples, which are being renovated and Kumbabhishekam is being done for those temples. I am really happy to see all this.

At the same time, there are many things that make me feel sad. I pray to God seeking pardon for unwarranted happenings in some of the temples. Such instances come to my notice because they cannot be expressly revealed to others. I feel I must not be silent about these issues. All are my own people, they are close to me and I need to speak out my heart to them. Therefore, let me tell you the following:

Temple environments must be peaceful and clean. They should remind one about nothing except God. But the scenario today is entirely different. In most places, there are lots of shops around the temple area, including those selling even tobacco, cigarettes and tea. Certain temple authorities even rent out these areas to get revenues. At some of the temples, it looks like, excepting God, they have rented out everything else! Such an environment is neither good for the sanctity of the temple nor for our feeling of Bhakti.

Many office buildings, cottages and resorts have come up around many of the temple locations. We see a lot of activities that are contrary to religious practices in such locations. All these pollute the sanctity of temples. Only temples located in very remote areas have survived such onslaughts. Some of the temples are now being administered by exclusive Government departments. Thus it also becomes the duty of the public to escalate such irregularities to the Government for remedy.

Irrespective of religious activities or Kumbabhishekam that takes place in a temple, if the environment of the temple is not clean, whether inside or outside, there will be absolute disorder. What is the use of not ensuring sanctity of the temple after Kumbabhishekam? If public gets vocal about such happenings, Government authorities are bound to become more responsible in taking corrective measures. Public opinion does have enormous power in such matters.

It looks like nobody else will ever highlight the extent of unruliness and disorderliness within temples. Let me speak about that too. There are groups that visit temples as part of their long tour programs. This includes girls from colleges and schools. Even during their menstrual periods, these girls enter the temple for dharshan. They are not even aware that this is against religious codes. Reformers may object saying that Swami has not laid down any restrictions regarding menstrual periods as He is the creator of this aspect too.

If reformers feel God is present everywhere and He is not bound by such specific codes of religion, then, why should anybody come only to temples for His dharshan? When temples are governed by codes of Shastras, people should necessarily follow these codes when visiting the temples. In my opinion, it is only because people violate the codes of scriptures that many mishaps and disasters occur at many great places of pilgrimage.

When such disasters occur, people are anxious to know whether the sanctity of those temples has been impacted in any way. Otherwise, why should such mishaps take place? I am saying with utmost frustration that though sanctity still prevails to some extent, God, despite His utmost compassion, is unable to tolerate such indiscipline and thus punishes us by way of disasters. He punishes us only with the view that we reform ourselves and become disciplined.

Unfortunately, many pilgrimage tours are more for fun and entertainment than Bhakti. There are atrocious things happening even in temples like Tirupati. This is totally unacceptable to us. If I don’t speak about these matters despite knowing about them, I will be doing great injustice to humanity. I am not only telling these to you, but also directly to Lord Balaji with my earnest prayers. Only He must bless people to be vigilant in protecting temples from disorderliness.

This article is a snippet from the Book Thus Spake the Divine, is available online at www.giri.in and across Giri Trading Agency Private Limited, A chain of Speciality Stores dealing in all kinds of products needed in Indian Culture and Tradition.