Temples🔗

Extracted from Nithyananda's discourse 'Temples - repositories of Truth' delivered at Meenakshi Temple - Texas, USA in 2005

It is said that if the energy of one lightning stroke can be captured in a battery, you can supply electricity to a city for more than one year! Such is the energy of the cosmos. This divine cosmic energy exists all around us as the 5 elements - earth, water, fire, air & ether. Temples are structures specially designed to harness and store this energy for us.

Worship through Earth! The deities (idols) in the temples represent the formless cosmic energy. Idols are made of the earth element (like brass, copper, lead, silver or gold). Idol worship is therefore nothing but

connecting to the cosmic energy through the earth element! When you worship the idol, you worship the divine cosmic energy. So it is important to understand that idol worship is not worshipping the form of the idol; it is worshipping the cosmos through the idol.

The cosmic energy is easily harnessed through the water in the holy rivers. That is why, bathing in the river Ganges and other such sacred rivers is considered holy. Also, many temples include a temple tank with water which serves as a storehouse of the cosmic energy. When you dip in the holy rivers or in these tanks, you are connected to the divine cosmic energy.

In temples, fire rituals are conducted to invoke the cosmic energy and radiate it. The energy radiated through the fire is transmitted to stored water, and this water is offered to the deities in the temple as a holy bath. Thus these fire rituals serve to sanctify the deities installed in the temple. Merely witnessing fire rituals is an effortless way to connect with the divine cosmic energy. Also, you can perceive the fire element in a lit lamp at the entrance to the sanctum sanctorum in many temples.

The cosmic energy can be harnessed through the air element when you chant mantras. In temples, mantras are continuously chanted. Mantras are energy utterances. The vibrations of these fill the pervading air and energize it. The air inside the temple is kept pure and energized through chanting. Just being in the space where chanting happens is enough to be in the midst of the divine cosmic energy.

Rejuvenate through Ether! The ether element is the most vital form of the divine cosmic energy. It fills the space around us. The very structure of a

temple is designed to be a battery to store maximum ether energy. When you meditate, you can harness this subtle ether energy and connect to the Divine through it. That is why many temples have meditation halls built as part of them.

When a rich man dies, he leaves behind his wealth to his wife, daughters and sons. When enlightened masters leave their body, they leave their wealth of energy, penance and goodness to humanity at large. Temples are built on these energy fields left behind by them.

Either the masters themselves build these temples when they are alive or the people build them after the masters leave the body. These temples are further sanctified through rituals that harness the divine cosmic energy. These temples are divine gifts of these great masters to humanity.

There are two types of people: the first type generate energy from their own system. They are like the solar system. Wherever they are, they produce energy; they radiate energy. Whatever they do, they excel in it; whatever they touch flourishes. They are the ones who nourish the world. They are the enlightened masters!

The second type of people are those who have forgotten the art of producing energy from their inner source. These people may flourish, but maybe only in one or two fields, and that too out of the superficial energy source called 'mind'. Since their source is superficial, multidimensional flourishing remains a dream for them. These are the ordinary people of the world. The first category of people helps the second category by giving energy to it; by giving it a clear cut technology to achieve.

As per Vedic Science, there are two ways to install energy in a deity: one is agama pratishta, the other is prana pratishta.

In agama pratishta, energy installation is done by the second category of people. It is done essentially through chanting of mantras. This method will install only a few volts of energy. The energy intensity will be decided by the nature of the mantras, the accuracy with which it is chanted and above all, the psychological state of the person chanting them.

In prana pratishta, energy installation is done by the first category of people. It happens through a direct connection with the divine cosmic energy that nourishes the whole universe.

The first category of people, that is the enlightened masters, are pure channels for the divine cosmic energy to flow through. They can choose what manifestation of the energy they wish to install. They could install the wealth energy, the health energy, the karma-exhausting energy that liberates one from this cycle of life and death, or any other type of energy. For the goodwill of society, masters have worked on the science of the inner

world and have installed various aspects of the divine energy in historic temples. Today, every historic temple has its own significance. Each deity has its own boon to offer depending on the type of energy installed in it. That is why, in order to conceive children, you go to a particular temple; in order to wed a suited spouse, you go to a different temple; to defy planetary influences, you go to a different temple; for finance problems, you go to a different temple. These benefits are nothing but special energy packs!

Temples are structures that replace an enlightened master's presence. Masters, by their sheer presence heal people; they heal not just at the physical level but at the being level. They keep the inspiration for spirituality alive. Their presence offers an ambience of sacredness. Temples are spaces created by masters to offer these same things that they offer.

While performing consecration at the Anandeshwara Temple, Nithyananda said:

'An enlightened master is the cosmos in human form - the ultimate human form fit to perform a sanctum consecration. For an enlightened master, the energies of expression through any means never get exhausted.

For example, for an ordinary human being, the grief emotion or joy emotion exhausts when expressed through tears; the pitha (fire element) of the body exhausts through anger; the lust energy exhausts through sexual act, the power of speech exhausts in his very saliva the moment words are uttered. All these energies of expression become exhausted as he uses them.

An enlightened master's energy of expression cannot be exhausted through any of these means, because he is Existence - the inexhaustible source of energy - in human form. And because masters do not need a body to execute their work, they can continue to do the things they do even after they have left their physical body.

The sanctum created and energized by them will radiate inexhaustible energy and nurture every being that seeks it. Only a master who can function without the help of his body is capable of creating a true sanctum, one that will materialize things exactly like the way he does!'