More new Spiritual concepts and temples are started! Where to go?
A woman devotee (Name hidden) asked like this:
“Hare Krishna prabhuji. I am diverted by plenty of new concepts and new new big temples with all the modern facilities. I forgot visiting Tirumala for two years. Previously, I was visiting every year. i am attracted by the grand construction of the modern temples. For example, in Coimbatore, I visited …………….once and attracted by its grandness and air conditioned facilities, etc. But, though it was a good tour spot to visit, I didn’t feel devotion there. Please guide me how to attach to Tirumala back”
REPLY:
This confusion exists among many devotees nowadays, because when new systems or temples come with more attraction and assurances, they naturally go there more.
Once I was discussing with a senior devotee. When the talks came about the grandness of the present day temples, I told him that I feel that air conditioning for the temple and deity rooms can be avoided and the temples should be built with open spaces around them as in the traditional temples as the air can circulate from and out of the temple.
(How Krishna reacts to one’s preaching of false concepts and manthras? READ HERE!)
He replied that we give air conditioning to the temples as we too use A.C and we should not use any facility that the Lord does not use. So, we give A.C facility to the temple and the deity rooms.
I did not hesitate to ask: “DEVOTION should be accompanied by material sacrifice. You tell that we should give AC to the Lord because we too use that. But, the actual thought should be to recommend the devotees NOT TO USE A.C as the Lord does not use it and we should not get addicted to more and more new addictions.”
I also said: “The body of Krishna is spiritual. His body does not feel the discomforts of the temperature”
He agreed with my reply.
Thus, the modern temples are grand, but, MANY of them do not give any ENCOURAGEMENT to COMMIT to develop detachment from the material comforts.
Thinking like “We will use everything and all comforts after giving to Krishna” is the compromised devotional practice. This is what happening in many (Not all) of the modern temples.
Many such new temples by new players are also advertised more in almost all the available media. They also assure more material gains for following them. So, they attract more visitors. But, some of them are visited like visiting the tourist spots. So, the devotional FEEL may be less.
(FOLLOWING MULTIPLE CONCEPTS IN DEVOTION – DEMERITS! READ HERE!)
Tirumala Tirupati is a very Powerful temple that is getting many hundreds of crores of revenue every year. But, the Lord Sri Balaji is sitting inside a dark Garbhagraha. When the temple management once intended to fix golden plates inside the garbhagraha, the people objected citing agama rules and hence that plan was aborted.
Thus, the temples that are built as per the Agama rules do not allow such facilities like air conditioning for the deities or people. Only for the devotees waiting in queue, some of them offer the facility of aeration through fans.
Why such an increase in the modernized temples and meditation centers everywhere?
Every person who likes to become popular creates his own concept and new divisions dividing the society further.
When already there are thousands of traditional temples facing revenue shortage, More and more new Spiritual concepts and temples are built with the air conditioned atmosphere. The people run to those new attractive temples deserting the temples in their own towns and villages.
The reason – religious systems are being created by new players in every century and every new religious system is using all the technology to propagate their concepts.
Thus, only the clever persons and establishments that advertise themselves excessively brainwashing the people, can live in this society happily.
Those old people and traditional people who are serving silently lag behind in their life and struggle to survive.
For example, there are 108 divya desams in India that were visited by the great alwars 1000s of years ago. In all the temples, Vishnu and Lakshmi are blessing the people in different names. Same Vishnu – same Lakshmi in all the temples.
(What is the danger in learning the Scriptures from non-bonafide sources? READ HERE!)
If the people of every village visit and protect the Vishnu temple of his own village/ town, all the temples will flourish. Without doing that, every person runs to only 5 or 10 popular Vishnu temples out of 108 temples. The managements are unable to control the crowd in a few temples. Same Vishnu will be expecting the flow of people in every village/ town. But, the people are travelling and visiting only a few temples of the same Vishnu.
On my part, I rarely visit the temples to which pilgrims are flowing making the temple managements struggle to manage the crowd. Instead, I frequently visit the small temples where the same deity is blessing, and give decent donations to the Hundi and the brahmanas doing the service.
The Point is that the temples should be built as per Agama rules to retain more and more spiritual powers. They are the places of worship, not just the tourist spots.
Kanchi Sankaracharya sri Chandrasekarendra Swami spoke more against simplifying, diluting and modernising the vedic religious processes. He stressed that the new spiritual leaders should not create their own concepts as the timeless tradition has already been given in the sanathana dharma.
With the deterioration of kaliyuga, more and more diluted spiritual concepts come and confuse the people. If this trend continues, only the promoters of such diluted concepts will flourish, not the traditional concepts or people.
Krishna may have to come again to re-establish the original dharma again.
Let us not get diverted by such attractive diluted religious processes. We should protect ourselves from such bogus or compromised concepts.
So, while supporting good new Spiritual concepts and temples, do not stop visiting ancient and traditional temples built as per agama rules because they have been added more and more spiritual power because of hundreds of years of offering Pujas. Also support small temples that are struggling to run. It will bring more mercy of the Lord. Within the last one month, I got the opportunity to donate for the renovation of three ailing Vishnu temples. These opportunities are given by the Lord. Make use of them.
Hope you are now clear about dealing with the more new Spiritual concepts and temples.
(WHAT IS THE REASON FOR THE RISE OF CHEATING IN THE NAME OF GOD?– A RESEARCH! READ HERE!)