When was the last time you visited a temple?
And when I say “temple,” I don’t mean any of the well-known ones. I mean your neighborhood temple. The one that may never be featured in a travel blog, is not in a must-visit destinations for a tourist in your city. One that is managed by your local community, and the priest of that temple just about manages to make ends meet and give a respectable lifestyle for his family.
If you haven’t gone to your neighborhood temple of late, its time you go there today. Why do I say so? I say this because that temple is living proof of an ageless civilization that has been and will continue to be a target of religions across the world. It is an outpost of Dharma and you are the sentry who has the responsibility to guard it.
You must meet and exchange pleasantries with your Sanatani neighbors; they are not merely your community but are in fact your larger family. Celebrate festivals with them, visit them at home if possible. If you do so, they will stand by you in your time of need.
You must not chase away the neighborhood boys when they ring the bell of your home to collect chanda for a puja or a jagran. Because these are the boys who will stand up to the enemies of Dharma that lurk around us. They are the ones who will warn a young girl when she is being chased by perpetrators of Love Jihad. They will fight with adharmis when they enter your temple to desecrate it by breaking idols, dirtying it and insulting it by doing things like urinating on a shivling that you do abhisheka of every morning and evening.
And they are the ones who will pick up anything near them be it a lathi or a sharp object when rioters come to attack Sanatnis in your locality. They are the ones who will guard you when you take out a Shobha Yatra in the honour of your deity and celebrate a festival. And they are the ones who will stand guard and ensure that the prasad being prepared for offering to a devi or devta is not corrupted.
Yes, its time for you to start going to your neighborhood temple and spend a few minutes there. Take in the pure energies of the temple, interact with the community, strengthen it. Stop lamenting about the fact that the Hindu is divided and a unity of Hindus is an unlikely possibility. You take the initiative and others will follow, don’t wait for others. For this, you have to first break the barrier within you.
And while you reflect on what you have read till now, please remember a simple truth: every cop, every judge, every CM, even the PM is apprehensive of a crowd of people that hits the streets. I end this piece with: Your real teerth sthal lies near your house, in your vicinity. Go to your neighborhood temple today, its your temple.