Saturday evening, a little jolly at work, I was having a casual chat my colleagues. We often talk about Americans vs Indians (in IT business). And guess what I keep telling them, Americans are good, they make good products, and they are intelligent and so on. They keep protesting it and we have good debate. I don’t mean to prove Indians inferior. But hey! never underestimate anyone even u if know a good deal about them. Don’t generalize. Just learn from their strengths.
Anyways, the debate couldn’t get any far that day - we were hungry - I was dreaming of a pizza. “How about a pizza! - Vivek, you owe us a treat anyway”. Vivek didn’t have a problem but Ganesh wasn’t for it. “Shalin, I have to go to the temple”. I laughed. “Ganesh, don’t ditch a pizza for the temple”. Both of them starred at me. They probably didn’t have anything to hit me with. I quickly added “Just Kidding, but tell me, why do you have to go to the temple?”. “Shalin, I have go there 29 times, once a week, during this (some) period”. I was amused with his reply “So you get a good girl if you go to that temple 29 times in a year, or you get a good hike or something else”. Well bad guesses but he didn’t have a good reply either. I wanted to pull his leg further. “And in how many temples is this offer running?” I better not mention their reaction but they soon bounced back to me with questions. “Shalin you don’t go to temple, you don’t believe in god or what” I was expecting these questions from them. Lot of people have asked me this before too. “Listen, I don’t remember when I last visited a temple but I think I did visit one this year, I don’t have anything against temple nor against any belief. I just don’t go to temple, maybe because nobody at home asks (force) me to nor I feel it’s necessary”. The discussion slowly faded away. I wasn’t very keen in discussing that at least at that point of time.
But I have always thought over it. Why don’t I visit temple like most of them do. Why don’t I “believe” in GOD and “Worship” them. And then the next thing on my mind is - why should I. I cannot digest the fact that people who don’t pay their income tax visit temple. And by doing that they feel they are religious and social. Why do we have to pretend to be someone and why do we have to go to someplace to prove it.
I feel we should be responsible for what we do, probably “GOD” is nowhere but within ourselves. I think our conscience is GOD. If our conscience cannot allow us to do something that should help us draw a line. Honesty is not a Plug and Play device. It should be in our blood.
Maybe next time someone asks me if I believed in GOD. I should simply say: “Honesty is my religion, I am god”
March 26th, 2004 at 5:07 pm
Take it this way….There have been great people in the past…. and people have built a shelter where pictures of those great people can be kept, so that people visit them and get inspired by their qualities which they had procured.
That shelter is nothing but a Temple.
It is similar to how a business man will appreciate Dhiru Bhai Ambani.
There have been devotees to appreciate the great people of great virtues.
March 26th, 2004 at 5:08 pm
well said, but y only temple, you don’t really have to visit ambani to know of his greatness.
I think people go to temple for convenience. easy way out. you know what I mean.
March 26th, 2004 at 5:09 pm
” aham Brahmasmi || ” !
( GOD is me )
March 26th, 2004 at 5:10 pm
well i dont kno abt most ppl, but i guess believing in god or some force makes life so much easier, i mean u can actually think that somebody is planning this for u and at the worst of times u get the courage to go on simply believing that there is someone looking out for u. and i guess going to the temple is just a way of reassuring urself
well there are those ppl who think they can bribe god, they go to the so called big temples and give huge donations and there a majority who go there looking for peace of mind
March 26th, 2004 at 5:11 pm
correct. but my point here is “going to temple” to believe in GOD.
What I think is: GOD is us - each of us - temple probably is an additional place to let us know what he looks like etc etc .. all the cosmetic version
Imagine how would you be with people when you treated them as GOD. Our relationships would be so much more pure.
On a second thought temple to me is: a museum of great scholars.
March 26th, 2004 at 5:12 pm
Yes it is very much possible to know GOD without going to temple. To know HIM there are ways such as meditation.
BUT, for most of us meditation is not easy directly when we are beginners, We need some easy way to concentrate and devote our attention to some thing which is VISIBLE which is nothing but an idol in the temple.
Actually, worshiping an idol at home also similar. But their are more distractions at home than in temple.
After certain stage when the mind is stable enough, one does not have to go to temple.
What matters is purification of thoughts through any means. Temple is one of the means.
If you read a good article by bill gates or Micheal Dell won’t you stick it over your desk to inspire you?
This is the same case.
Honesty is only one of many virtues which great souls had. There are still many more virtues we can cultivate by learning from their lives.
March 26th, 2004 at 5:13 pm
Thinking each of us as GOD may sometime lead to some level of overconfidence in us.
And if we think we are honest in what we do then the best way to continue with those virtues is to have some kind of faith which controls us from doing wrong things many a times.
For that faith some people visit temples which inspires them to do positive things.
Vinita
March 26th, 2004 at 5:13 pm
i dn`t visit the temple myself coz i feel that people do unwanted things in the name of religion. it is pompous these days the way they hype matters related to god. but realising the feeling that therez a god makes life easier. when ur low and want to surrender urself into to somone, god will never refuse to let u rest in his arms; u may have never seen him, never had a proof of his existence but he`s there like ur conscious, an imaginary friend, mother, miracle: waiting for u to discover each moment as it is comes.
March 26th, 2004 at 5:14 pm
‘i’m god’ talk is how i think of god myself. i would take it a step further and say that god is too cunning and street-smart to be confined to temples and such
supremely boring places. i dont go to temples bcos the Jughead is omnipresent.
August 16th, 2004 at 10:21 pm
Being Honest and being God-fearing are more or less the same. I dont have the practise to go to temple or pray. But i always believed in principles and values. Acting against my moral conscience is something thats impossible for me. And thats the God within you. And many times during this God belief and non-belief arguments, i used to put forward this point - “Let your conscience be your guide.”
But could everyone’s conscience be as pure as we think? One’s conscience is build and grommed by their education and environment. What seems right for one maybe wrong for another! What to do with their flawed conscience?