Right mindset in a temple

 

When you go to temple , you are confronted with a micro scoiety and the play of your image and that of others might shoot up more ferociously than when you are alone doing  your meditation in your room. In any public place where you have to act and speak before a specific audience, there will be people whom you know and those whom you don't know; They may see you and your body movement may be interpreted and a judgement cataloging you as "so and such" and "this and that" may be going on. And, in a temple , you may have  a similar kind of experience but with less negative waves from people normally; However, you should remember that this obsession with our external identity is what we should take off as a snake does with it's skin ; Here in a temple, we should become  a cosmic instrument only and not a finite being; our mind should first weed of the "pavlovian conditioning" of identifying ourselves with our external physical identity.  We should be the personification a "ray of energy" in motion under a wrap of human skin. Our habit of referring to our body and identyfying others in the same way should be let aside all the time we are in a temple; Because, the benefits of being in a temple may not be fully harvested; When the GURUKAL or SWAMI begins to chant "yopam pushpam veda etc  " , that mantra should echo in you fully and when you have to sing "prabo ganabathy " for example, you should experiment that moment to verify if you are the song you sing with the image of LORD GANABATHY all in your mind and all the force he represents and the auspiciousness he personifies or you are seeing yourself singing in your body ; In the latter case, the evening has lost it's purpose but in the former you have succeeded to put in to practice what you learnt from meditation. When you become one with the energy of which LORD GANABATHY is a symbol , you should first know what all enrgies for which he is the embodiment like force, energy, obstacle remover, courage and leadership etc; You should visualise all these powers going in you .( That is the beauty of Sanatana Dharma which is a continous "self improvement " education. You imbibe the qualities of the God you prey and become one with him and I can even say you become Him ).  Good qualities are symbolized by Gods in Hinduism to be imitated by human beings. Every chance of being in public should be a test for you t    o verify if you can overcome your ego to merge with your greater self.