Why should large amounts of money be spend on temples and Deities?

From: kanchan

Recently huge amount of money was unearthed at Lord Padmanabhsamy temple.My friend who has faith in God had a question about the nessecity of spending huge amounts of money for deity worship,decorating Lord and altar and jewellery.she says cant we use that money for improving our economy?

I think I couldn’t phrase the question properly. so pl rephrase it before publishing. Seeking you answer and views.

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you Question from Kanchan Jadhav Recently huge amount of money was inherited at Lord Padmanabha’s Swami temple My friend who has faith in God had a question about the necessity of spending huge amounts of money for deity worship decorating the Lord in the altar with jewellery She says can’t we use that money for improving our economy Answer Yes this question can be answered at different levels the first level is in general although there is huge amount of money being spent on luxury on various things people don’t question that luxury say millions and crores of rupees are spent on inauguration of a cricket tournament millions and millions of rupees are spent on just doing some stunts special effects for some television for programs for some movies for fulfilling the fantasies of some movie stars so when that sort of luxury is there why is it that our concern for the poor doesn’t rise at that time why is it that only when money is spent on God we start feeling that the money why can’t it be used for helping the economy entertainment is also offering some sort of relief for people well then we can say that even the temples offer a relief for people, temples also play a part of the economy in fact India has a huge spiritual tourism industry people come to India some of them may come for business but a significant number of people also come to India because of the desire for experiencing the spirituality of India so even if you look at things economically having magnificent spiritual places will attract pilgrims to India from all over the world for example Srila Prabhupada started ISKCON headquarters in West Bengal in the place where Sri Chaitanya Mahapura was born in Mayapur so at that time Mayapur was a relatively remote place and the place where Srila Prabhupada started the temple all around as far as I could see were just overgrown fields and practically no human beings but now today that is a that is a bustling place with devotees from all over the world coming there and as that has happened the whole economy around it has also developed so many thousands of people have got employment over there as transporters as retail shop providers as generational paraphernalia providers as construction and other menial workers as business entrepreneurs so the whole economy of that place has been transformed entirely from what it was 40 years ago the same applies to Vrindavan the place where the Vrindavan temple was there on the transformation that resulted in Vrindavan after ISKCON came over there is called the book as the Hare Krishnas in America so there of course he describes many things Hare Krishnas by Charles R. Brooks so he describes how from the economic point of view, the sociological point of view the cultural point of view, how Vrindavan was transformed and developed by the presence of the devotional community over there now if we want people tourists also to come to see some place, there has to be something worth seeing not just spiritually but also materially so actually if India were to develop its spiritual resources the spirituality could become a big economic resource for India there are so many places all over the world all over the country where there are so many sacred places that people want to visit but the infrastructure is minimal and sometimes it is not only difficult but dangerous to go to such places and still people go there so we cannot deny from the financial point of view that spirituality has also its economics around it and naturally people are attracted to visit a place if there is something attractive something wonderful materially so there is a gorgeous temple there is a magnificent temple with gorgeously decorated deities even from the purely material point of view that is a way to stimulate business we could say that why should France have spent so much money to build Eiffel towers or whatever other famous structures are there in the world why should so much money have been spent over there for that? well because the money was spent that place has become a tourist center and that has become a sustainable source of economy for the local people around it so that is the first level now we can say ordinary entertainment gives some sort of relief for people well going to a spiritual place gives a much deeper relief to a large number of people also so there are even from the material or the psychological point of view benefits from having spiritual places and having spiritual places made in a way that is attractive and appealing for people to come and visit so that is at the purely material level of answer at a second level we see that even in our own country if the Prime Minister is there, the Prime Minister has a huge house and the Prime Minister has a large amount of money being devoted to his care and to his transportation with dignity and for his security and in India the President is more or less a nominal head but even the amount of money spent on the President is astronomical so why is that required? you may say it is not required but it is done not only in India, it is done in every country so if a person is great, then that greatness has to be honoured so if we are honouring the Prime Minister of India, then what about the Supreme Lord if we actually philosophise that God is the greatest of all people and we take our level of understanding of God in God to concrete understanding of God as the Supreme person, we actually we need to worship yes, this sort of worship now we may say that actually God does not need all this worship yes, God does not need all that worship but we need to worship God so I am going to the next level of answer now at a more devotional level so first I talk about a financial level then I talk about a hierarchical level, where a person who is on a respectable position needs to be respected according to the proper etiquette and now I will talk about the devotional level at the devotional level we understand firstly that actually everything belongs to Krishna and when we offer everything belongs to Krishna, they are meant to be offered to Krishna so the Vedic literature reveals a vision of God, not just as a stern judge or as a impersonal light but as a loving living person whom we can enter into a loving relationship with so we express our love to Krishna by offering the best that we can to Krishna and when we offer our best to Krishna two things happen by this first is that we become purified when we offer our very best to Krishna actually our heart experiences a far greater satisfaction than if we had offered the same thing to ourselves we can make a very beautiful dress for ourselves and we may want to parade and show the world how good I look and we may get some satisfaction by that by making heads turn wherever we go but if we use the same Lakshmi and make a beautiful dress for Krishna and Radharani and if we have a little emotion then we will find that the satisfaction that we get by seeing Krishna glorified is far greater because Krishna is the root of the tree and we are the various leaves and branches in that tree so when we are trying to decorate ourselves then we are actually watering the leaves and twigs but when we are decorating Krishna we are offering the water to the root of the tree so it is a mystical thing that we will see in many temples at least in those temples where proper standards of devotional service are being mentioned are being preserved, maintained there the pujaris the worshippers will be wearing relatively simple dresses if you see in ISKCON the pujaris they wear relatively simple dresses dhoti kurta, saffron or white but then they are decorating the Lord in magnificent dresses so why? the idea is that the more we beautify the Lord the more our heart gets satisfied and the more we use the craving to beautify ourselves and if we use this craving to beautify and glorify ourselves then that actually is the root of the unhealthy competition and disastrous exploitation that is ruining our planet today we see ecological problems we see economical problems it’s all arising from uncontrolled greed and we can’t get away from greed just by making some stricter laws the Lokpal Movement is good in the sense that it is trying to have stricter rules for punishing those who are offenders but actually we need a Gopal Movement to purify people’s hearts so that people will not do such wrong things and if people are attracted to Gopal if their senses go protected by the Lord then they will not be captivated by the worldly pleasures and they will not exploit others for those worldly pleasures so at one level what will happen is if we offer the best possible worship that we can to the Lord, we will become purified and the greed that is ruining the world will go away and if the greed that is ruining the world decreases then the economy will improve so much actually we will see that there are places where people are starving to death and there are nearby lowdowns which are hoarding grains just so that the hoarders can make more and more money so the real problem in this world is not a shortage of resources it is a shortage of compassion it is there is enough in this world as Gandhi said to fulfill people’s needs but there is not enough so we can have greed removed by purifying ourselves so when we offer the best that we can to Krishna, we become purified by that and not only that, when Krishna is glorified and beautified in this way in a way that is even materially attractive when people get attracted people come to see maybe just the material glory of the place they may not value Krishna but then in the process when they come and take darshan of Krishna they associate with Krishna devotees, they hear Krishna’s name they take Krishna’s prasad they read the literature about Krishna then they also get a higher understanding of the values and purposes of life they experience a deeper inner happiness and they also become purified so in the Vedic culture of India a king’s glory was considered to be how wonderful a temple that he built so even if now if you go to Jaipur there are Radha Kumari Deities and they have them like this the temple itself is like a palace and when the palace of the king was constructed the temple of the lord was constructed in such a way that the temple was taller and grander than the palace so by this two things happen first is that materially minded people think oh the king is such a big person and he has such a big palace but then if somebody has a palace bigger than the king that person must be so much bigger so people are inspired to devote themselves to the lord even by this material understanding by this material perception of the glory of the lord and the kings are inspired to use their wealth to glorify Krishna so generally whenever people have wealth they want to use it for some purposes by which they can also demonstrate their wealth to the world so nowadays people may use it to just build big palaces for themselves to have the most expensive cars to have the most jazzy mobiles this doesn’t purify them it only creates envy in the hearts of others and it fuels their own hunger for appreciation from others more and more but at one level whatever the desire is there to show off one’s wealth when that is engaged in Krishna’s service by building beautiful temples for Krishna and by decorating this region in a beautiful way then that propensity amount of envy is utilized and along with that that propensity also gets purified because they are offering it to the lord they become purified by that now I will turn this question around at the final stage and I will ask rather than thinking why shouldn’t this wealth be used for improving the Indian economy maybe we need to ask the question what was it that made the Indian economy so strong in the past that it generated so much wealth what was it by which in the past people could generate such abundant revenues that so much money could be used for decorating deities now was it that ordinary people were starving while people were decorating the deities no, if we look at India throughout the history right from Alexander and before till the Islamic invasions involving various invaders which finally culminated in the Mughals coming to India very few invaders are interested in invading excuse me for that very few invaders are ever interested in invading a poor country because they have nothing to plunder over there so why were invaders interested in attacking India because India was so prosperous and the prosperity of India is documented not just through the fact that so many countries invaded India but it is also documented by western scholars like the glory that was India describes the phenomenal prosperity that was there in India especially in the pre-Islamic invasion times so he has written another book on the history of India before the Muslims came and he shows that the kind of prosperity that was there in India was unparalleled so why was this prosperity there we have a very impersonal mechanistic idea that by chance rains come and then grains grow and that’s how prosperity comes that’s a very incomplete understanding actually if we offer the best to the Lord that we have Krishna reciprocates by providing us the best that can be provided to nature so in the past when Indians were devoted to God nature was luxuriously providing all the necessities and much more than necessities and that’s how India had an economy that was so much flourishing that so much wealth could be used for the glorification of the deities so one level of reaction even if you want to improve the Indian economy one level of reaction could be that there is so much money in the Padmanabhaswamy temple why not use it to improve the economy so I explained how even from the economic point of view glorifying the Lord makes sense but if you go deeper and think ok there was so much money in the Padmanabhaswamy temple what were the principles that generated so much money and the Vedic literature described those principles imine jatapada jatapada suddha supakva ushati virudha vanabhidhyo dhanvanto yadhante tava vikshitai in the first century chapter 48 verse of the Shrimad Bhagavatam it is described that actually nature represents the smile of the Lord that when we serve the Lord sincerely then the Lord smiles and the smile of the Lord is perceived in various ways one way is of course the immense inner fulfillment that we experience but another way is the radiant prosperity that we see in nature so the great Kunti Maharani is telling that oh Krishna because you are glancing on the soul kingdom so all these fields are flourishing with grains all the oceans are filled with jewels all the mountains are rich with resources all the rivers are flowing luxuriantly all of nature is giving her bounty in a profuse way to all of us and she says all this is because yadhante tava vikshitai it is all because of your glance so if we can offer the best that we have to the Lord then actually the Lord will naturally reciprocate in love and offer the best that is possible through nature and then we can again have that kind of prosperity and when that happens then the economic problem will automatically be solved because we will have abundant natural resources we will have nature providing more abundant resources for us so that is another level of understanding so I will summarize what I said first is that spirituality is an untapped economic resource for India even if we say entertainment or movies or cricket far more money is spent on them than on temple worship if we look at it cumulatively just as they in some way contribute to the economy the spiritual places can also contribute to the economy by tourism by promoting business and for that the spiritual places have to be attractive, they have to be aesthetic they have to be worthy of seeing and therefore they have to be opulent then we discuss at a higher level of how if we truly understand the glory of God then just as the Prime Minister needs to be given honor and respect and facilities that are in proportion with his esteemed position we need to offer the Lord the position according to the glorification and position according to his supreme status and then this is not for the Lord, the Lord does not need anything but then we discuss at the devotional level when we do this, this purifies us because we are watering the root of the tree so this is something which we have to experience instead of talking about ourselves, we might get a little satisfaction we talk about Krishna and then we will find that we will get a much deeper satisfaction and then we discuss that if we offer the best to Krishna Krishna will offer the best to nature to us and therefore we will have an improbable prosperity back again in India as it was at the time when so much resources could be devoted to the Padmanabhaswamy temple Thank you I have written a full book on this Ideal Worship for Ideal Worship There I discuss this point also about why temples