Children, some people complain, “Though we have visited many temples and gone on many pilgrimages, our desires have yet to be fulfilled.” Visiting temples and going on pilgrimages are all very well, but our aim should not just be to fulfil our desires.
Our goals ought to be purifying the mind and awakening devotion to God. If we do not gain mental purity, all our spiritual endeavors will be in vain.
During construction, the concrete becomes set only if the steel rods used in construction are dirt free. Similarly, God can be enshrined only in a pure heart. While visiting temples and other sacred places, we must think of God and cultivate an attitude of surrender.
We must spend our time there in chanting the Lord’s names, singing bhajans, meditating or doing other spiritual practices. Even if our aim is desire fulfillment, the mind must be focused on God.
But today, when most people go to temples, their minds are preoccupied with home, office and a hundred other matters. They tell God about all these and ask him to fulfil their desires. They cannot forget everything else and think only of him, even for a single moment.
Once they have aired their sorrows, their minds return again to home or social matters. Some people wonder if the footwear they left outside the temple entrance might be taken away. Or the mind might run after the bus that takes them home.
Before leaving the temple, they donate some money for the vazhipadu (ritual offering). After that, they will not linger there anymore. They will say “bye” and leave.
This is not how it ought to be. We should try to spend all the time inside a temple thinking only of God. We must confide every detail to the lawyer or doctor. Only then can the lawyer fight our case properly; only then can the doctor treat our disease properly.
But there is no need to tell God anything. He knows our heart. Therefore, meditate on the Lord and thus purify the mind. We must try to spend all our time in the temple chanting the Lord’s name. Only then can we receive the full benefit of visiting the temple.
We will not make any spiritual or material progress by just going to the temple and circumambulating the shrine. No matter how many temples we visit, no matter how many offerings we make, visits to the temple will benefit us only if we turn our mind to God.
When it rains, water falls on the ground, turning it slushy and making it difficult for us to walk. The excess rainwater then flows away. In contrast, the oyster in the ocean might receive just one drop of rainwater, but nonetheless it transforms that single drop of water, for which it waited for a long time, into a precious pearl.
Similarly, although God’s grace is ever flowing, it will benefit us only to the extent we assimilate it. God is compassion. He is waiting at the door of every heart. He is an uninvited guest everywhere, because whether you call Him or not, He is there.
Whether you are a believer or a nonbeliever, God is within you uninvited. Behind every form, behind everything, God is hiding. He beautifies things and makes them what they are. He is the hidden formula of life.