If God is everywhere, do we need to go to a temple?

Yes and no. Water is a combination of hydrogen and oxygen.Hydrogen and oxygen are everywhere. When we feel thirsty, why don't we just open our mouth and suck in a little bit of hydrogen and oxygen to quench our thirst? The reason is that we need an accessible form of water. Similarly, although God is everywhere, we need an accessible form of God to access His and the temple happens to be such a place. In a sgrace, temple where the Lord is worshipped with a lot of love, care and attention, He will manifest His supreme mercy, beauty and blessings. So yes! We must go to such a temple on a basis to bathe ourselves in that divinity and be blessed.

However, if there is a temple where we find the standards are not maintained and the Lord's service is not up to the mark, then it will not manifest the Lord's grace, and thus we might not receive the divine touch an ideal temple can offer. So, we can certainly avoid such a place. But if we find a place that is charged with divine energy, then we must certainly make it a habit to visit it often and encourage others to do so as well.

We are all troubled by our turbulent minds and the temple is a hospital for the sick mind. The word for temple in Hindi is 'mandir', which comes from the word 'mann' meaning 'the mind'. Thus, a temple or mandir is a place where our 'mann' or 'mind' is cleansed.

Also, the temple serves as a battery charger. In our fast- paced lives, plagued as we are by so many issues, we get drained. Thus, we go to a temple to get recharged so we can execute our worldly duties with extra vigour.

The temple also serves as an educational institution that trains us in the spiritual culture so we can practise the same at home with our family members. As the famous saying goes, 'A family that prays together, stays together.'

And lastly, temples serve to remind us of the ultimate goal of human life, i.e., self-realization or God realization. Out of sight is out of mind. When we regularly come into contact with the divine atmosphere of the temple, we remain vigilant to the sacred principle that we must not only work, but simultaneously remember Him while we work. This will help us to be in this world, but not of this world, unaffected by the dualities of life. In time, our work will become worship.

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