God exists everywhere. So, a question may be asked why there should be any temples built for Him.
We know that God exists everywhere, but still the idea does not get firmly established in our mind. It does not get reflected in our daily actions. If one remembers God all the time, how can one utter any falsehood or commit evil acts?
If God is merely omnipresent, how can He help us? We all long for His grace somehow. So, we have to worship Him and get His grace. But the agama-shastras tell us how this should be done.
The sun’s rays contain a lot of heat energy. If we keep a piece of cloth in the sun, it does not catch fire by itself. But if we place a lens and focus the sun’s heat rays on that piece of cloth, after some time, we find that the cloth catches fire.
Similarly, electrical energy is everywhere, but in order to bring it to our daily use, we need to have generators to channel that energy and transmission systems to distribute it at the places where we need it.
In the same way, in order to get the grace of the Omnipresent Lord, we have to build temples, where we can focus the power of the Lord in a consecrated idol for our benefit in an easy way.
So, in our country, we find that there are many temples; of course, in other countries also, there are many places of worship, but there is no question of installation of any idols, as in the case of our temples.
They have just a big prayer hall where people assemble and offer some prayers or do some silent meditation and then disperse after getting some peace of mind. But in our temples, the idols are installed and they have divinity infused into them and, as such, they have a certain sanctity about them. (Continued..)
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