it is commonly said within the hindu comunity that people visit the temple for four main reasons firstly there is a need in humanity to be social , to gather together as a comunity . this is prehaps the most common reason for attendance . the second is that there is a deep seated wish to gain some understanding of life , thirdly to gain personal blessings and to pray for what we see as benificial results , and lastly and least commonly as this occurs only in those who have had their questions answered , are those who come to surrender to god , who come to know and pay homage to god .
it is not said in any judgemental way it is simply acknowledged to be the natural propencity of human beings .
to me the sad thing in the west is that we are taught that science can answer the second question , 'the deep seated wish to gain an understanding of life' and it is the veiw of modernity that the scientific veiw has replaced the the outdated religious outlook , to the efect that the church has lost credibility due to what most see as the outdated creationist veiw . this is not so prevalent amongst hindus as they see a deeper meaning to life which sciece and scientific descoverys do not rival .
however personaly I feel that there is a deep need for felowship amongst humans , this also we can see operating on many levels ,firstly the need to form comunitys around a core beleif and morality , secondly a wish to belive that prayer counts , that by coming together our sympathys may be expressed and our joint wish for a better world may be heard .and lastly in some there is still a deep wish to know and become one with god .
one does not nececarily need to be a regular church atendee to search for god , but there is often there is simply a great need to feel at ease amongst others of similar understanding .
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