| From The River Of Heaven |
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| Books By David Frawley |
| UNIVERSAL FORM OF WORSHIP: TEMPLES, PUJA AND HOMA | |
| A temple, however, is different than
our more usual idea of a church. In a temple teachings may be given but there should be no preaching.
We should encourage each individual to awaken to the Divine in their
own way, not seek to impose a particular pattern upon them. A temple
is a space of openness which allows for the individual to find God or
truth in themselves. It is open to all truth, expressed perhaps through a specific form,
but it is not a monument to a particular belief as against others. If
that space of openness is violated the power of the temple goes with
it.
Temples should be made to all possible manifestations of the Divine according to the Divine potential in each form and each aspect of nature. In India the Divine is worshipped in animal forms not because animals are worshipped. It is to aid us in seeing the Divine presence in the animal kingdom. Temples may also include reverence to great teachers of the past. This is to link us with our common humanity and the great stream of human aspiration through history, not to attach us to personalities of the past. Hence the basis of the true temple is freedom. A temple should be made to freedom of worship, not dedicated to preserving only one form of belief. The true temples of India have this free spirit about them. The body itself is the main temple of the deity which is consciousness itself. If we do not maintain this inner temple it is of little value to honor the outer. In the practice of Yoga this inner temple is the seat of worship which is the practice of meditation. The temple is the body of the deity made manifest. So too, the body is the temple of the deity made manifest.
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| About Universal Form Of Worship: Temples, Puja And Homa |
