It is apparent that the world around us is the world as we perceive it. If we see a chaotic world, we perceive it as being chaotic. If we hear a rumor about something, we form a view based on that. When we touch something we feel its rigidity, smoothness etc. We taste and smell things and form an opinion. Generally the impressions so formed have two shades; positive-negative, like-dislike, good-bad, pleasant-unpleasant etc. There are many dimensions involved in forming these opinions. If length, breadth and width are the basic three, Einstein added time as the fourth dimension. If we perceive the world with our own senses, what would be the perception of the Almighty, Omnipresent, Omniscient and the Divine?
To foray into this, I would like to add the “state-of-mind” as the fifth dimension for a simple reason that senses are said to be greater than the body; but greater than the senses is the mind. State of mind influences the shade of the opinions and if the state of mind is receptive, there’s a chance that we could understand the Divine. The intellect which is greater than the mind manipulates the state of mind. With the spiritual intellectuality the divine perception can be understood.
There are four types of devotees; the seeker after worldly possessions, the afflicted, the seeker of knowledge and the man of wisdom. A man starts as a devotee at first seeking the worldly possessions, God obliges. But the worldly possessions bring troubles and sorrows as by products. The devotee afflicted by these sorrows, worships God and asks for help. When God relieves him of his stresses, he starts to realize the divine might and becomes a devotee of knowledge. God imparts divine knowledge to the devotee and makes him a man of wisdom.
The wisdom frees the man from the malice towards all beings making him friendly, compassionate and forgiving by nature. It frees him from the feeling of ‘I’ and ‘mine’, and balances him in joy and sorrow and makes him ever contended and mentally united with the supreme. It firms his resolve, subdues his mind, senses and body, and makes his mind and reason surrender to the almighty. Such a man of wisdom is free from delight, envy, perturbation and fear. He neither rejoices nor hates, nor grieves, nor desires. He wants nothing and is both internally and externally pure. He deals equally with friend and foe and is the same in honor and humiliation. He is alike in heat and cold, pleasure and pain and other contrary experiences. He is free from attachment. He takes praise and reproach alike, and is contented with any means of subsistence available. In short, he identifies the world not with his senses but with the divine perception.
We see hundreds of devotees visiting the temple daily. They even come from faraway places, take time to express their devotion by chanting some mantras and stotras, doing pradakshanas, namaskaras, and shastangaNamaskaras. What’s the Deity in the temple doing all this time? He stands there erect, motionless with all his alankaras intact. If we observe closely, His eyes are closed and there’s a faint smile on His lips. Just by looking at Him we feel ecstatic. With the Divine in the vicinity, we feel (with all our senses and mind) that we are connected to Him, but He still stands there erect and motionless. We don’t see Him talking but we still communicate. He is continuously in meditation and constantly responds to prayers of all his devotees, helping them ultimately become the men of wisdom.
For the devotees who recognize the world with divine perception there are no shades, but the shade of the Divine. Temple is the place where devotees, with proper state of mind, are turned into the men of wisdom. The Deity is the port that helps us connect to the spiritual world and help us attain the divine perception. The religious values which teach us this divine knowledge should be honored and the sanctity of the temple should be maintained.
