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It is in the
Hindu temple that the three worlds meet and devotees invoke the Gods of our religion. The
temple is built as a palace in which the Gods live. It is the home of the Gods, a sacred
place unlike every other place on the earth. The Hindu must associate himself with these
Gods in a very sensitive way when he approaches the temple. Though the devotee rarely has
the psychic vision of the Deity, he is aware of the God's divine presence. As he
approaches the sanctum sanctorum, the Hindu is fully aware that an intelligent being,
greater and more evolved than himself, is there. This God is intently aware of him,
safeguarding him, fully knowing his inmost thought, fully capable of coping with any
situation the devotee may mentally lay at his Holy Feet. It is important that we approach
the Deity in this way - conscious and confident that our needs are known in the inner
spiritual worlds.
The physical representation of the God, be it a stone or metal image, a yantra or other
sacred form, simply marks the place that the God will manifest in or hover over in his
etheric body. It can be conceived as an antenna to receive the divine rays of the God or
as the material body in or through which the God manifests in this First World.
When we perform puja, a religious ritual, we are attracting the attention of the devas and
Mahadevas in the inner worlds. That is the purpose of a puja; it is a form of
communication. To enhance this communication we establish an altar in the temple or in the
home. This becomes charged or magnetized through our devotional thoughts and feelings
which radiate out and affect the surrounding environment. You can feel the presence of
these divine beings, and this radiation from them is known as shakti.
Shakti is a vibration. It is first experienced in the simple physical glimpse of
the form of the Deity in the sanctum. Later that physical sight gives way to a clairvoyant
vision or to a refined cognition received through the sensitive ganglia within your nerve
system: the chakras. Through these receptors a subtle message is received, often not
consciously. Perhaps not immediately, but the message that the shakti carries
from the Mahadeva manifests in your life. This is the way the Gods converse. It
is a communication more real than the communication of language that you experience each
day.
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