Agama Shastra is the science of creating certain spaces. Fundamentally, it is the science of turning the profane into the sacred. A lot of nonsense has been added to it over a period of time, but the core of it is about how to make a stone into a God.
This is a very deep science but because the science is subjective, there is always tremendous scope for misinterpretation and exaggeration. This has happened, over a period of time, to a point where today Agama Shastra has become a ridiculous process. People are doing idiotic things without understanding why something is done the way it is done. But if it is properly done, it is a technology where you can take something as gross as a stone and transform it into the subtlest force, which you refer to as God.
There are so many temples in India. Temples were not places of prayer, they were always energy centres. Traditionally, you were never told that if you go to a temple, you should worship—you were not told to send your requests to God. They told you that if you go to the temple, you must sit for a while. But now you just touch your bottom to the floor and leave. That is not the idea. The idea is, you must sit there and imbibe, because this is not a place of worship. This is not a place where you believe that something will happen or a place where somebody will lead the prayer and you pray along with them. This is just an energy centre for you to get yourself charged on different levels. And since you are a complex combination of a variety of energies, a complex combination of temples were created for different kinds of people. Different types of temples were built for different requirements within each person.
Kedarnath, for example, is a very powerful place; its energies are more spiritual in nature. But on the way to Kedarnath, is an occult temple; somebody created a small, very powerful space. If somebody wants to work occult aspects, they would go to this little temple, as the atmosphere there would be more conducive for that kind of work than the Kedar temple.
You need to understand the distinction between what spirituality is and what is occult. Occult means technology; the technology of doing things with the physical energies. Just as modern science and technology are used. For example, you put on the television in your home, and you can see what is happening in another part of the world, right here in your own home. Even though you have taken it for granted, if you just think about it, it seems miraculous. To people living on this planet 200 years ago, a television would surely seem miraculous. But if you are willing, with your present level of intelligence, within your own dimensions of existence, you can understand how this works and you can make it happen. You could even build your own television set. Agama Shastra is an intricate technology like your television set or your cell phone or something else, which for a lay person is quite a miracle.
The spiritual process is not of this realm. It is not technology. It is not something that you do, it is something that you become. It is a transcendence of the present level of existence. Spirituality means going beyond these limitations. It is very different.
The writer is a world-renowned spiritual leader