The Greatness of Our Temples
I happened to read about the temples in Kerala with particular
reference to Padmanaba Swami temple at Thiruvananthapuram. Most of the old records
(done in brass or copper plates) say the land belongs to “pandaram vaha” (in Malayalam
Pandaram=Bhandaram=Hundi. Vaha = One who bears = Maintainer= Nirvahaka) That
is, the things, articles, lands belonged to the deity of the relative temple.
The King was just a Dasa (slave), not to even be called as
trustee, of the deity. In Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Kerala State, the
King was known as “Padmanabha Dasa” (=slave of Lord Padmanabha). And the temple
was built for Sri Padmanabha (Lord Vishnu). Sree Padmanabhaswamy is the
tutelary deity of the royal family of Travancore. Vaishnavaits would be familiar
with the Shibboleth (Slogan, A word or phrase identified with a particular
group or cause), “Adiyen, Ramanuja Dasan” (Me, slave of Ramanuja)?
According to Indian civil law, even now, all deities are treated
as perpetual minors and the king (now trust) is just a karyakar = (Karyakarudu,
పనివాడు) servant, not an owner
at all. In all other countries like the West and Middle East, Kings and royal
family really “owned” the country. In India, barring some exceptions, the land
belonged to the deity. People of the country can build house or do farming
obeying the terms and conditions of the trust deed.
So the ancient Indian system of governance, in which temple
played major role, when compared with that of West and Middle East where Kings
were autocrats is altogether a different style of functioning where even the
ruler is also a servant to someone who is superior to him and is the almighty. Let
us not be carried away by Indian history text books written by die-hard fans of
invaders, as they only teach about the superiority of the westerners to whom we
have to be subservient forever.
When Arabians and Europeans came to India, the then Hindu kings
thought that they were “Atithis” (Guests) hence considered as “Deva” (God) as
we preach and practice ‘Atithi Devo
Bhava' a Sanskrit phrase which can
literally be translated in English to mean “The guest is equivalent to God”. So
kings provided them free land and money to build Churches and Mosques along
with freedom to worship. If we check mustering our patience the old documents of
the relative land donated for Churches and Mosques by Hindu Kings we can realize
the reality. Have we ever heard otherwise happening anywhere in the world! Will
Saudi Arabia or Vatican give a small piece of land to build a Hindu temple in
their territories?)
Another aspect: Ancient temples (Devalayas) were not a place for
prayers. The Free Dictionary defines a temple as follows:
a. A building dedicated to religious ceremonies or worship.
b. Temple either of two successive buildings in ancient
Jerusalem serving as the primary center for Jewish worship.
c. Judaism A synagogue, especially of a Reform congregation.
d. Mormon Church A building in which the sacred ordinances are
administered.
None of these definitions
suffice the real meaning of ‘Devalaya’.
Temples never had a prayer hall like that in Churches or Mosque
(Prarthanalaya). Of course, there are mandapas which are pillared outdoor hall
for performing arts and public rituals in temples. When you go to an old temple,
the sanctum sanctorum itself is very small and dark. Hardly two or three people
can stand in front of it.
That means temples had some other purpose. Fact: – temples were
powerhouses of energy. Every ritual, prayer, ceremonies were only secondary to be
in a temple but the main thing is to be in the field of consecrated energy. I
don’t know how did they do it, but I have read somewhere that even individual
karmic energy can be stored and retrieved in temple. But we lost all those
ancient wisdom on energy contact and we are left only with rituals or we have
become overly ritualistic, without understanding the real significance of
temples.
Another fact is that temples were store house of enormous
treasures too. This explains gigantic fort around the temple. Recently Sri
Padmanabhaswamy Temple of Thiruvananthapuram was in the news as it became one
of the richest Hindu Temples in India. It is believed that the total assets of
Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple have now exceeded the assets of the Tirupati Balaji
Temple in Andhra Pradesh. The wealth accumulated in the temples was used purely
for dharmic deeds.
The priest, mostly a poor Brahmin, in the temple would get one
or two meals a day, that’s all. There were choultries associated with those
temples that provided food and shelter for not only the poor and needy but also
the choultry provides seating space, rooms, water and food to any non-local
person who visits the town or shrine for his personal or devotional purpose.
These are financed by a charitable institutions or the ‘Devalayas’ itself. Their
services used to be at no cost, or up to the visitor to leave whatever they
wish as a donation. All the deeds i.e. karma was done based on the concept
“Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanam Astu” (Everything I offer to the Atithis tantamounts
to offering Sri Krishna or the divine). Everybody followed the Dharmic way of
life – the Symbolic Centre of this system was the temple.
That was our ancient economic system – our dharma was based on
sharing and caring. Our ancestors built huge store house of energy, wisdom
(libraries and universities) and physical wealth associated with the temple
premises. They worked hard and stored everything as treasure for coming
generations. And temples were highest seat of marvelous architecture,
sculptures, Classical Dance, Classical Music, and Shastra and Technology. That was the glory ascribed to the Nation BHARATA.
Among several meanings, Bharata denotes (RATA) dedicated to (BHA) progress.
The Dark Age began with the arrival of the brutal, religious
fanatic, barbaric invaders who attacked, looted and destroyed the
temple-economy and molested the ladies of the soil inhumanly. According to
independent historians, more than hundred thousand Hindu temples (the likes of Samantha
temple) were destroyed by those demonic invaders and killed nearly 75 million
Hindus (preferred death to giving up their dharma) during the process. The
entire temple-system was thus perished. They burned away our universities and
libraries.
While our ancestors gave importance to education, arts, music,
health, environment and nature, the barbaric invaders did not build even one
school or hospital. All they did was to build palaces and gardens for their
enjoyment, tombs to perpetuate their memory and forts for their security. Lot
of beautiful temples were destroyed and converted to tombs – one example could
be the Taj Mahal!
Naturally, those ordinary peace-loving Hindus around the
temple-system became very scared and insecure; hence they tried protecting the
remaining temples. They believed that non-Hindus may destroy it. But, alas, the
cunning, pimp-ish Hindu politicians failed the remaining temple-system.
An ardent follower of Sanatana dharma like me would not blame
any other religions for this downfall. It is our own politicians, who
arrogantly taken over the right to manage richest temples in India. For the
most part, the temples and its wealth are transferred arbitrarily by the
government for “secular”, non-Hindu purposes. The most damaging side-effect of
this is lack of resources for maintenance and upkeep of temples, leading to
irreparable damage to many medieval and ancient structures. I have personally
seen and experienced this.
Hindus are now feeling insecure and scared, not because of
Muslims or any other religions, but because of our own “Hindu Secular
Politicians” (all political parties included) who are worst and crooked than
the brutal and barbaric invaders.
Swasti.
No comments:
Post a Comment