Why Should I Donate to Temples?
God is omnipresent, which means he is everywhere, in and around you. Even though he is everywhere, he is generally not visible to the human eye. To allow us to worship God, he came in the form of an idol, which is also called as Archamurthi. He is always ready to smile, ready to dance, ready to have a conversation with us, and is always ready to bless us with his kalyana gunas.
We request the well-being and peace to those around us, which is our immediate society and to everybody in the world by performing various sevas such as, araadhana, abhishekham and kalyanam. This is the essence of Vedic Dharma.
To share our happiness, pleasure, displeasure, hardship, and sadness with others, our egos may get in the way. So, without any hesitation one must be able to openly share their feelings with God, thus finding solutions to our problems, and to invoke our souls (aathmas). Our temples play an important role in accomplishing this. Money, jobs, business, gold, items, and vehicles grant us temporary happiness. Temples act as a gateway to facilitate a path towards attaining moksham which is permanent happiness. Donating to build temples, is not only helpful for us, but also for many people like us.
“Eesavaasyam Idam Sarvam…” as said in Eesavasyoopanishadh, means that when the entire world is controlled by paramaathma, doesn’t it mean that we and our assets also belong to paramaathma? Once you understand this fact, how does giving money to paramaathma become a donation? The answer is it doesn’t
“Yasthu sarvaani bhuthaani….” Yasmin sarvaani bhuuthaani…”. This means see paramaathma in everything, or you see everything in paramaathma. This feeling is possible only through practice. As the first path is very difficult, by following the second path, which is by seeing everything in paramaathma, we can request world peace.
By fulfilling society’s needs such as education, medicine, food, clothing, and employment through temples, it helps us to get rid of our egoistic feelings like “I did it” or “It’s mine”. Following this path proves Upanishadhs saying, “Everything belongs to paramaathma, who is the owner of the universe.” Whoever wants to serve the society, if those services are done by converting temples as centers for serving the society, it helps them visualize paramathma in everything and everyone.
Riches may or may not be with us all the time. If you think that these riches are only for yourself, then as said in Bhagavadh Gita, it will cause you sin. If you dedicate these riches to God, these will be purified. Then any good deeds we do with these riches and have used those riches for the right cause, will always stay forever, when we are on this world, or not.
Temples have been formed for society’s upliftment towards the right path. By encouraging and donating towards construction and for ongoing activities, it will benefit not only the current generation but future generations as well.
II Loka:s Samasthaha Sukhino Bhavanthu II
-Hanuma Swami