Brahmam, the Ultimate

According to Vedas, the real place of worshiping God, or rather invoking gods for worship is your own self! (Aham brahmaasmi = I am the god!). It is the basic tenet of Hinduism that every human being has a soul called “Atma” in Sanskrit, which is the very incarnation of God (subset of the whole set). He who is able to invoke god in his own mind and identify the self with the soul is supposed to have attained the exalted state of acheiving oneness with god.

There are two ways of doing it: one through Yoga (”Hata yoga”, “kundlini yoga” etc), where you subject the body to a certain set of postures and rigors and unite the body with the spirit and invoke the spirit at many power points or “Chakras” abstractly available in the body to attain unison with god. The other method is “bhakti Yoga” , which is worshipping god by meditating on him chanting hymns on gods, which are called, “mantra’s” in sanskrit. These two schools are termed as “saguna brahma upasana” and “nirguna brahma upasana” to wit, worshipping god with his attributes and without it as an abstract

But all cannot meditate inwardly and concentrate - since the mind will tend to wander. So the abstract has to be given a concrete human-like form so that humans can easily meditate on them. Thus came the various human forms of hindu gods! Each god was a creation of a group of people who started invoking gods to a form depending on their minds’ ability to visualize limited to their education, culture, avocation, terrain, economic and educational status and various other social factors that influence their thinking process.

But the human forms of gods thus created have to be housed somewhere so that people can congregate and offer worship. The gods’ abode is called “Temple”. There is an elaborate science called “Agama Sastra” containing construction details of a temple and the special rites to be performed while installing gods in a temple. The Raja’s or kings of olden days made the construction and use of temples a main social activity. Various festivals were arranged in temples which helped in social interaction and cohesion amongst the communities. There are many rituals associated with the installation and consecration of the deities in temples. An elaborate yagam (holy fire) is performed together with chantings and various other puja’s. It is altogether a different science by itself.

To sum up, the best place of worship of Hindu gods is one’s own self and the next best is temples where the deity has been installed according to the stipulations laid out in the scriptures and hence they posses the power of god.

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