Love of The Gods, Part Three
Author: Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami
Description: Description: The Hindu temple is able to absorb and encompass everyone. Hinduism is a religion of love. The ever-present Truth that God is within man is the essence of the Sanātana Dharma, the Eternal Truth. Hinduism was never created, never founded as a religion. Therefore it can never end. The worshiped Gods of Hinduism bring the devotee into their celestial spheres, enlivening his soul with energy, joy and intelligence."
Transcription:
Good morning everyone. Welcome to Moksha Ritau. Exciting period here.
And today we're continuing "Merging with Siva" Chapter 19 entitled "Love of the Gods" from 1978. Keep that a little bit short since we have a flag raising next.
Lesson 131:
"The Centrality Of Temples
"Like the Hindu religion itself, the Hindu temple is able to absorb and encompass everyone..."
(That's a really important point. So I remember a story, a swami, somewhere out in the country in Tamil Nadu; I don't remember the exact city. But, he said his guru answered the question "Why is Hinduism such a complicated religion?" And his answer is: "Well it has something for everyone." So to have something for everyone you have to have lots of places, right? So, something for everyone.)
"...It never says you must worship in this way, or you must be silent because there is a ceremony in progress. It accepts all, rejects none. It encourages all to come to God and does not legislate a single form of devotion. Hindus always want to live near a temple, so they can frequent it regularly. People arbitrate their difficulties in the vicinity of the temple. The Hindu people treat the temple very seriously and also very casually. It’s a formal-informal affair. Between pūjās, some may sit and talk and chat while others are worshiping. You might even find two people having a dispute in the temple, and the Deity is the arbitrator of their quarrel, giving clarity of mind on both sides.
"Each Hindu temple throughout the world has its own rules on how to proceed and what to do within it. In some temples, in fact most temples in South India, all the men are required to take off their shirts and enter bare-chested. However, if you are in a business suit in the South Indian temple in New York, that’s all right. You are not required to take off your shirt. Every temple has its own rules, so you have to observe what everybody else is doing the first time you go. Hinduism is the most dynamic religion on the planet, the most comprehensive and comprehending. The Hindu is completely filled with his religion all of the time. It is a religion of love.
"The common bonds uniting all Hindus into a singular spiritual body are the laws of karma and dharma, the belief in reincarnation, all-pervasive Divinity, the ageless traditions and our Gods. Our religion is a religion of closeness, one to another, because of the common bond of loving the same Gods. All Hindu people are a one family, for we cannot separate one God too far from another. Each in His heavenly realm is also of a one family, a divine hierarchy which governs and has governed the Hindu religion from time immemorial, and will govern Sanātana Dharma on into the infinite.
"Hinduism was never created, never founded as a religion. Therefore, it can never end. Until the Persians attached the name Hindu to those people living east of the river Indus, and the name Hinduism later evolved to describe their religious practices, this ancient faith bore a different title—the Sanātana Dharma, the Eternal Truth. The understanding was that within every man the germ or cell of his total affinity with God exists as the perennial inspiration of his spiritual quest and wellspring of all revelation. This enduring sense of an ever-present Truth that is God within man is the essence of the Sanātana Dharma. Such an inherent reality wells up lifetime after lifetime after lifetime, unfolding the innate perfection of the soul as man comes more fully into the awakened state of seeing his total and complete oneness with God."
Lesson 132:
"In God's Presence
"In the beginning stages of worship, a Hindu soul may have to wrestle with disbelief in the Gods. He may wonder whether they really exist, especially if his own intuition is obscured by assimilation of Western, existentialist beliefs and attitudes. Yet, he senses their existence, and this sensing brings him back to the temple. He is looking for proof, immersed in the process of coming to know the Gods for himself. He is heartened and assured by hundreds of saints and ṛishis who have fathomed and found close and enduring relationships with the Gods, and who then extolled their greatness in pages of scripture and chronicle.
"The devotee stands before the sanctum and telepathically tells the Gods a problem, and with hopeful faith leaves and waits. Days or weeks later, after he had forgotten about his prayer, he suddenly realizes the problem has disappeared. He attempts to trace the source of its solution and finds that a simple, favorable play of circumstance and events brought it about. Had the Gods answered his prayer, or would it have happened anyway? He brings another prayer to the Gods, and again in time an answer appears in the natural course of his life. It appears to him that the Gods are hearing and responding to his needs. Trust and love have taken root. He goes on, year after year, bringing the Gods into his secular affairs, while just as carefully the Gods are bringing him into their celestial spheres, enlivening his soul with energy, joy and intelligence."
So we'll stop there so we can have a parade.
Have a wonderful day.
[End of transcription.]