Temple or Aalayam

Temple is a place where individual souls are reabsorbed into their source.  The purpose of temple is to get rid of oneself of the three defilements – ego, lust and maya. Temple topography mirrors the human body, the “temple” of the individual soul, where the gopuram is the mouth, Nandi is the tongue, the flagpole the tonsils, and the various lamps and lights are representing the five senses.  Accordingly, the inner sanctum is the heart and the temple deity is the soul itself.  Where scripture delineates the five koshas or sheaths that encase the soul, the temple has its five prakaras.  Like the koshas, the prakaras are enclosed one within the other with the innermost the sanctum sanctorum.  As one moves from the gross body to the most subtle – the self in its primordial state, so the pradakshina through the five prakaras to the inner sanctum is the symbolic journey from the gross world of form to the subtle realm of spirit and the divine.

Regards,

Tirumalanath

tirumalanath@gmail.com