Thus Spake the Divine - Temples Vis-à-Vis Hospitals

Thus Spake the Divine

Temples Vis-à-Vis Hospitals

Service to humanity is service to God! Therefore, there is no need for exclusive worship or Pooja for God! Let all temples be converted into hospitals and schools! Quite true! Curing patients, giving education to children etc. are, of course, supreme services. However, can we not say the opposite, “Service to God is service to humanity?” Even this appears quite sensible, isn’t it? It means service to God is for the benefit and wellbeing of humanity. Only service to God will ensure everlasting welfare for the entire society than any other social service.

In hospitals, we do treat patients and send them home in good health. But should they also not live virtuous life? If by being un-virtuous they cause harm to society and to their own selves, then, what is the use of curing their diseases? This is what comes to my mind when people bring their kin and kith with mental illness to me. But if I say it out, the affected people will feel very sad.

As for the mentally ill people, whatever they do, none amounts to sin because their minds are not in their own control. They are just suffering for their previous bad Karma of earlier lives. Unlike normal human beings, those mentally ill just speak what occurs in their minds or get violent. In that case, why cure and make them normal and trigger them into committing sins? It is more important to guide patients away from evil thoughts.

This is a worse disease that needs to be cured more than a physical illness. Schools and colleges are built for people to acquire knowledge. What if they come out of these institutions and commit un-virtuous acts? What then is the use of running schools and colleges?

What is the use of just nurturing intelligence, which can be abused for committing evil acts and escaping from clutches of law without getting caught? Man’s life does not end with schools or hospitals. The basic objective should be to ensure that he is virtuous in his character. Therefore, temples are very much necessary for the society just like schools and hospitals. May be the need for temples is even more than that for schools and hospitals. Temples are important to tune us towards virtues, meditation and Pooja. These keep people away from evil acts.

Treating man as God and serving him is quite noble. But more important is to help him become aware of the divinity within him. This is where temples play a greater role. Some people opine that Bhakti is not a necessary ingredient for being a virtuous person. However, in reality, man is surrounded by many desires that drive him towards selfishness. There is no other means other than Bhakti that can cleanse the individual’s soul. There has to be conscious feeling in a man that only “God is our benefactor and witness to all our actions”. It is this feeling that has been acting as a catalyst in driving a man towards the path of Dharma since times immemorial.

The objective of Bhakti is not to refine a man with good virtues alone. It is also to attain absolute wisdom that God and human beings are not distinct, they are one. That eventually, the human unifies with that Supreme Power. Bhakti is also a powerful tool to ensure that a person lets the external world know that he is a virtuous soul. Other than Bhakti, only constructing Gopurams and making them visible to man can remind him persistently about the magnificence of God.

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.