History
A temple is a place where we find unfathomable solace. Even our souls get totally absorbed in the divine ambiance edifying thoughts enter our mind and elevate our spirit. A temple is a repository of unbounded peace which no man can buy. Mind gets perfect peace only when we are fast asleep. But the same mind becomes a monkey and jumps from thoughts to thought when we are awake.
Daily we engage ourselves in so many activities which are mainly directed towards earning money. We tend to forget that earning the Grace of God for our life in the other world is more important than earning money for our life in this world.
The Grace of God, if it is earnestly sought and found, can afford knowledge to the dunce, wealth to the poor, strength to the weak and what not .
Just as milk is available in plenty in the cow’s udder, God’s Grace is available in abundance in the sacred shrines of temples. The disturbance and distractions felt in the environment of our home and offices, cannot be felt in temples. The divine atmosphere inside temples helps us to concentrate well on God. That is why we have temples.
Our country is abound in holy places and temples. It is not easy for all of us to visit the umpteen temples that our holy Bharath has but we can visit at least those few prominent temples that are within our reach. The oldest temples that were built of brick and wood no longer exist. Stone later became the preferred material. Temples marked the transition of the Vedic religion to Hinduism.
Mandir construction and mode of worship is governed by Sanskrit scriptures called agamas, of which there are several, which deal with individual deities. There are substantial differences in architecture, customs, rituals and traditions in temples in different parts of India. During the consecration of a temple the presence of Brahman is invoked into the main deity of the temple, ritually making the deity and temple sacred.
Read more about this topic: Hindu Temple
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—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)