We began this series of By Whatever Means with meditation last week. One way to hold the mind and make it rested in the self is to meditate. Another of the numerous ways available in this ancient path called Sanatana Dharma is to visit temples and places of worship.
A temple is a scientific construction that is designed to store energy or Prana Shakti. A visit to the temple is primarily uplifting the soul, while providing entertainment and delight to all aspects of our being. Our physical body—the Anna Maya Kosha gets the necessary exercise it needs when we walk around the huge temple complexes with many prakaras or circumambulatory paths.
Then there are the five organs of perception and the five organs of action which are sensory functions that the physical body houses.
Each sense organ is engaged in a divine way during our visit to temples. The beautiful sculptures and the ultimate darshan of the deity in the dark sanctum sanctorum in the dim light of burning camphor cools the sense organ of sight. This organ has got tired with seeing the world of objects like computers, television, mobile phone and other gadgets.
The only difference between seeing and engaging with objects of the world and the deity in a temple is that, the man-made world sucks out our source of prana while the temple architecture and the refined process of activities in the temple reflect it back to us manifold. That answers why we feel so energised when we walk out of a temple. We are ensconced in a gentle but forceful and intense shower of cosmic energy in a temple premises. That takes care of our tactile sense.
The olfactory sense of smell is addressed with the fragrance of fresh flowers, camphor, incense sticks and other divine aromatic compounds that are waved around the deity and taken around the temple too. There is the auditory sense that is catered too with divine sounds of chants that not only are pleasing to the ear, but enter into our mind and correct the wrong thought vibrations in the intellect that have initiated a failure virus in our internal computer system.
This is also a reason why we go to temples and pray and experience success in activities we undertake. The sounds of the bells and chants correct our internal brain neural network and our thoughts flow in the channel of success.
There is the other sense organ of taste. Delicious prasad in little quantities are tasted with reverence and devotion. This not only fills our hunger with tasty food and herbal water, but also prepares the mind to accept what challenges, trials and tribulations that life throws to us as the prasad or the gift of the supreme. The mind becomes quiet and non-complaining as a result. Such a mind is a meditative mind naturally. Such a mind is also successful in the world of action.
So if you wish to quieten your mind, look out for the neighbourhood temple or a famous temple in the outskirts. Making temple visit a regular habit heals the mind too.
(www.sharanyachaitanya.blogspot.in)