Significance of Indian Temples

Tena­cious effort over gen­er­a­tions

* Hoysala archi­tec­ture is the build­ing style devel­oped under the rule of the Hoysala Empire between the 11th and 14th cen­turies in Kar­nata­ka

Astron­o­my inte­grat­ed with­in archi­tec­ture

Tem­ple — cen­ter of Indi­an thought and life Now, what is the sig­nif­i­cance of a tem­ple to the Indi­an tra­di­tion? See all of us, we encounter that the mind becomes engaged with one thing or the oth­er. Now if the object that the mind gets engaged with is lim­it­ing, then we feel lim­it­ed. If the object is empow­er­ing and expan­sive, then we feel empow­ered and lib­er­at­ed. That is why our object of med­i­ta­tion or object of reg­u­lar activ­i­ties in Indi­an life has been around a tem­ple, so that we are con­stant­ly look­ing up to a high role mod­el. Our puranas illus­trate how great these devas and devis have been. We devel­op our­selves so much by just look­ing at them. We become inspired to be great in our own lives. And hence we pro­ceed towards lib­er­at­ing our­selves from lim­i­ta­tions, from con­straints. That is the process of get­ting enlight­ened with knowl­edge — knowl­edge that is not just intel­lec­tu­al, but very much in action, direct­ed towards the well-being of all. That is what the devas and devis show us — that we are con­stant­ly engaged in action that leads to good­ness in all the lokas. That is what a tem­ple does to us, when we ori­ent our­selves around a tem­ple, around such inspi­ra­tion that the devas and devis pro­vide. That is a blessed life, that is an awe­some life.