As far as Hindus are concerned, temple is NOT JUST a place of worship. It has more purposes. Before I answer this specific question, let me describe a typical temple and darshan of the main deity. The deity is generally decorated with a lot of colorful flowers, with oil lamps on the side giving it the light and heat, there are bells around, there is this theertham and nivedyam. During deeparadhana, all these are in its full effect, followed by Sankhu theertham which is sprayed on the devotees.
If you look into the above a bit deeper, this unique combination is such that, it is capable of activating all our sense organs in ONE go. The colorful flowers, the lamps and the deepams activate our eyes. The sound of the bells activates our ears. The smell of the flowers, the doopams, and the camphor used for deeparadhana activates our nose. Theertham and Nivedyam activates our tastebuds and when the water is sprayed, it also activates the skin. The prayers, manthras and slokas helps to set the vibrations inside us to the next level. All this combined, with the pleasing enviornment of good air and some good social interactions with the people we know, makes a great start for the day with all of our senses fully active, lungs filled with a lot of fresh air and a pleasant feeling of meeing our friends. The effects of these are not achieved/reflected in 1 day, but when practiced over many months, this becomes a habit and it becomes a second nature to us to be positive at the start of each day.
Leave a Reply