|
Hindu people worship
both at home, where they can be by themselves, or at Temples.
Temples are a place where the people can step away from the world
of man. Seeing as Hindu people believe that their lives are mere
stages going towards fulfillment, they retreat to the Temple for
knowledge from their Gods. In fact, the temples are designed
architecturally for enlightment and liberation.
The vastushastras describe the
Temple’s floor plan as a representation of the celestial
bodies. The floor is made up of tiles and triangles, both deeply
religious. The square tiles each symbolize a god, and the grid on
which it is built is a model of the cosmos. The square in the very
center of the Temple represents the temples main deity, the very
outer rings belonging to the lesser gods.
The main shrine of a Hindu Temple faces
the East, toward the rising sun. The pathway to the shrine is on a
east-west path, passing through various shrines of increasing
importance. The following elements are often included in a Hindu
Temple:
- A porched entrance, one or more
hallways, and an inner sanctum with a tower over
it.
As the Purana’s state, ȁ gods
always play where groves are near mountains, rivers and
springs.” This in turn, causes many temples to be associated
with water, as almost all sacred sites of India are. Many people
donate to the Temples to help keep them running and one of the
wealthiest is a Vishnu temple at
Tirumala.
|
|
|
