Katha message

Why do we go to temples?....... The archana that is performed consists the holy names of the Lord and they have a specific pattern! They glorify the Lord's avathara, his kalyana gunas, his daya, Karunya, and also an assurance that what is sought is definitely obtained! Then the sevarthy's specific need is addressed. As Bagavan has pointed out in Bagavat Gita : "chatur-vidhya bhajante mam janah sukritino arjuna arto jijnasur artharthi jnani cha bharatarsabha” There are four types of devotees they are Artha, Artharti, Jigyasu, and Jnani! The first one wants his distress alleviated the second wants to fulfill his desire, the third wants none of the above but is curious of knowing more about the concept of God and divinity! and the fourth is a realized soul! Similarly our ancestors have designed the timing of worship and also provided a method to continue the worship at home by way of Aradhana for an image of the Lord at home! If you carefully observe the temple timings are spread over the entire day! making it accessible to all. For instance a farmer can not visit the temple in the morning as he has to tend to his fields, similarly so many can not undertake this visit in the morning for them the time slots between the early morning and Artha jama may be convenient. As Lord is beyond time and space he could not be confined to these time intervals but to make the devotee come to Him without any hassles, these were put in place! During some period one may not be able to visit the temple at all, for them specific days listed as holy in the almanac are kept to come to the temple and offer his prayers. People due to their occupation leave their home town and stay for long outside their home town, for them it would be convenient to come during the annual festivals and derive the benefit of god's grace! If you carefully look at these festivities you would know that they provide for participation of all these people. Festivals like Anna koota, Naraimani, etc are evolved with these people like farmers or growers in mind. Similarly the temple rituals accommodate men women, children, young, old, and different asramas like Brahmacharya, Grhastha, Vanaprastha and Sanyasa too. These festivals also provide opportunity to vidyarthis to come to the temple and recite Vedic portions that they have learnt in Patasalas, and give opportunity to others who have learnt fine arts, harikatha, dance drama, music exponents, purohitas who have learnt agama sastras, grammarians and other literary experts to come and present their skills as an offering to the Lord! Now you probably get a fair idea of how the image and temple worship has been a great boon to our religion and society and serve the purpose of elevating our consciousness to a higher level!