Deivathin Kural Series - 110

Om Namah Sivaya.
Deivathin Kural # 110 of 03 of Dec 2006.
1. To-day's title is 'Aalayamum Aspatriyum', or 'Temples and Hospitals', occuring in pages 500 to 502, in Volume 1 of Deivathin Kural, Tamil version, published by Vanady Padippagam, Chennai.
2. There are people who hold the view that, 'To serve humanity is to serve God. There is no need for a seperate Service or Pooja to God.'
They believe that there is no need for, Temples and prayer halls and that all of them should be turned into, Schools and Hospitals. To ameliorate the lot of human beings, to care for them, to feed them. to educate them, to cure them of diseases; are all very noble indeed. When you say, 'Jan ki sewa Janardhan ki sewa hai, Nar ki sewa Narayan ki sewa hai', (that is, same as saying, to serve Humanity is to Serve God!), I hold the view that the opposite is also true. That is, 'to serve God is the best method of serving Humanity.'
3. You treat some one and cure him of disease and send him home. But after that, don't they have to live as good people? If they prove to be a source of threat and pain to the society, what is the use? If they are on the path of 'self destruct', your curing them is in vain. There are many who are brought to me, who are mentally sick or disabled, with the request that they be cured. I think inwardly on the above lines, and do not tell it to them, who are requesting me, so as not to hurt them. Now I am generally loudly thinking and commenting: When we knowingly committ an error, it becomes a Sin. So, if some-body has no control on his mind, no sin can accrue to him, whatever he or she may do. They are frank and straight forward. They can never be hypocrites. Like children, they say whatever comes to their mind. So I used to think, as to why should I try to cure them and there by make them vulnerable to further accumulation of sin and 'papam'!
4. It is not enough to remove the ailments of the body only. It is more important that the patient is cured of the disease of bad and negative thoughts. Similarly we institute schools and colleges. If the literate population coming out of the schools and colleges, are not morally sound, what is the use? If the educated, are lacking in devotion, discipline, sense of service and sacrifice, we will only be increasing the social burden. Such educated persons will be using their education for crass selfishness, through elegant frauds and scams. Man's life does not end with schools and hospitals. To make him and her, Good is the aim. To make them important, useful members of the society, is the goal. For this purpose, Temples are also required, as Schools and Hospitals. Or should I say
that, temples are more important than schools and hospitals! To make us good, devotion, singing the praise of God and such activities are essential.
5. It is important to cater for human being's health. It is also important to engage his mind and body, in socially useful pursuits and remove his poverty and give him sustained livelyhood. More than the above, the greatest social service, is to take him nearer God! Unless we ourselves, are regularly involved in meditation and devotion, we will not have the power to influence others, in this noble task. You cannot preach what you do not practice!
6. To think of Man or Woman, as God in human form, and serve them is noble indeed. But without stopping there, to enable everyone to realise a trace of the divinity in themselves, we need the Temples. We need to look after the Temples.
7. Some people hold the view that, to be a good human being, you do not have to be a devotee of God. But for the human being buffetted in-between the pulls and pressures of, what the induvidual wants (sincerely privately and publicly), what the family wants of him or her, and what the society wants; nothing like devotion to keep him on the right lines. To keep Man on the path of Dharma (that is, righteousness), over times immemorial, the 'Man - God', relationship has been most responsible. Man's inner awareness that, there is a God; that He is more powerful than anything and everything in this world; that He is the ever present witness; that he in the embodiment of justice; that even when forsaken by the entire universe, God's will be done. It is this 'Man-God nexus', that has kept man in the path of righteousness.
8. The aim of devotion is not only to make us good. The aim of devotion, is to know our causal power, and slowly but successively drop off the differences between this-our self and that-His self, and there by know our oneness. This automatically enables the sincere devotee to become an excellant human being, because, it affects the inner attitude (of considering everyone as his own self), rather than affecting only the outer behaviour. To construct a temple, with spires aspiring to reach for the sky, thereby to remind the onlooker to think of God, is the greatest social service.
Sambhomahadeva