The Ram Lalla Series - Where?

A hospital or school could have been built instead of a temple - that's the objection of rationalists.

You need to understand our relationship with our Gods. They are as much Gods as they are our father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter or a close friend. We will worship them and then we will scold them. We will lose ourselves singing their Bhajans and then we will lose ourselves accusing them for not paying attention. We will be submissive today and cry just looking at their Murthi and we will be authoritative tomorrow asking them to follow our orders. We are ruled and then we rule. We are them and they are us. If you try to fit our definition of Bhakti into the classic definition of religion, you have not even grasped the fundamentals of Sanatana Dharma.

We probably don't fit into these stereotypes. Our Gods come in many shapes and forms. We will worship the playful and innocent Ram Lalla. We will see a child that is as much ours as of Kausalyas. Our relationship with them is very personal. We worship them and yet we are not afraid of them. It's just love. Bhakti is as much devotion as it is love. We feel free to question them but we also feel free to confess with them. We are equals in that sense but we acknowledge that they are what we aspire to be. That way we are never equals and yet we are equals when we decide to get emotional and feel that we haven't been treated right by them. Very confusing.

We empty our worldly concerns with them. We speak to them and hear from them and that is a great stress buster for us. We read about them and learn how they navigated the world of Maya. That's education for us to deal with the world in just the right way. Education is not just knowledge, it is the ability to deal with the world. For that kind of education then, can there be a better school than a temple? Our personal  relationship with our Gods reduces our stress and keeps our heart at the right place and in the right condition. Is that not the most important part of being healthy? Is it not then a preventive measure to stay away from hospitals?

So yes,  Schools and Hospitals are needed. And they need to teach a lot more than academic subjects. For that we need our Shri Ram in his home so we can keep visiting.

Happy Deepavali. Jai Shri Ram.