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Home > Temples of Kerala >Temple Worship Temple WorshipOf the two forms of worship of God, the first one is saakaara (with form) while the other is niraakaara(without form). Generally worship of God in temple is done for obtaining some material benefit like wealth, knowledge, education, children etc. but as per scriptures, each such form of worship is one of the types under bhakthi. A person attains perfect bhakthi when sees God in everything and everything in God. In other words one feels that there is nothing without God and he sees every being as the most perfect temple. Though this should be the ultimate aim, every one cannot attain this. For achieving this, one has to pass through different stages of attainment. At the preparatory stage the intention is purification of soul for which the various steps are necessary like repetition of God’s name, rituals, worship of forms and symbols with devotion etc. Another way is renunciation. As and when renunciation comes the gate opens for the soul to pass through and reach the lofty regions of supreme devotion or *paraa-bhakthi. It brings out that at the preparatory stage of bhakthi it is ideal to worship a Personal God with Full awareness of thathwa-bodha ie. with faith that God exists in all, from microbe to Braham. Therefore for an ordinary person saakaara from of worship is best-suited and in Hinduism there exists a Personal God (Ista-Devatha) for every one. The worship of Personal god necessitated the creation of images for worship and that to depending on one’s own sankalpa. The result was the creation of images in different manifestations like Gods and Goddesses, devils (bhootha), serpent (naga) etc. Further divinity is also given to trees, plants, weapons of Gods and Goddesses, mirrors representing deities and even a sthhaanam (site). For consecrating an idol (vigraha) a suitable site has to be selected. There are well-laid down procedures for selection of site and its purification and they are discussed in this chapter * The complete works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol III (Eleventh Edition)p.76.
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