Shrine or the place of worship, commonly known as Temple in Hinduism. This is known to be a sacred place where we try to show our gratitude and throw on our wishes and desires in front of the Sculpture of all mighty supreme power which we believe is the creator of the universe. This is mostly a sacred stone or a Picture which has been worshiped since a long time. According to Hindu mythology, in one Veda it is mentioned that, there are about 33 crore Gods in the universe.
Which according to another Veda, it says there are 33 types of gods.
All the ancient scripts and Vedas were written in Sanskrit language which says "33 KOTI" gods are there,
where "KOTI" was understood as "crore" as per one Veda where as in other Veda it is understood as "Type".
33 types include
8 vasu, 11 rudra, 12 adityas, Indra and Prajapati.
In some scriptures,
2 Ashwini kumaras have been included in the 33 categories of gods in place of Indra and Prajapati.
These are the names of Ashta Vasus (Elements of Nature)-
1. Prithvi(Earth) 2. Agni(Fire) 3. Vayu(Wind) 4. Antariksha(Space)
5. Pratyusha(Eternal) 6. Dyaus(Sky) 7. Chandramas(Moon) 8. Nakstrani(Stars)
These are the names of eleven Rudras (Abstractions)-
1. Manu 2. Manyu 3. Shiva 4. Mahat 5. Ritudhwaj 6. Mahinas 7. Ayuttaras 8. Kaal 9. Vamdev 10. Bhav 11. Dhrit-Dhwaj
These are the names of the twelve Adityas (Sun Gods)-
1. Anshuman 2. Aryaman 3. Indra 4. Twashta 5. Dhatu 6. Parjanya 7. Pusha 8. Bhag 9. Friend 10. Varuna 11. Vaivasvat 12. Vishnu
I am not a spiritual guru or mahatma or a monk that I can dive deep into it and explain you about it in details. However I think this share of information is enough to make you understand what I really mean to say.
It is also said that if we go on exploring those 33 types we will get around 33 crore Gods, Now the question arise, How did they came up to this number 33 Crore?
Here I would like to share a real story or incident of my life which will help you connect the entire scenario and why is the topic named as "Moving Shrine"?
So the story starts like this,
I once had been to a holy place near Mount Abu in Rajasthan. I went there casually just to put a tick mark on the place that I have visited the place. But that turned out to be a moment of enlightenment for me when I got my answer to one of my long lasting question,
Where from this god story started?
It was like a Ashram and a type of school where they provide education on who God is and where did they come from. Thankfully that was a mandatory short session of about 30 minutes which I could not ignore and had to sit and listen to what they are saying. Then they started narrating the story saying,
The entire time line of this universe is divided in to 4 parts, which most of hindu people would be knowing,
Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga and
Kali Yuga.
These Yugas are divided as per its nature,

First came the
Satya Yuga, It is the age of truth and perfection. In this there were no crime, all the humans showed true humanity and had love and harmony all over. Due to which there was a strong power that prevailed all over that time. Any one could achieve and make anything happen just by saying it. The mindset was so clear and honest that all was possible and in spite of that also no one had any kind of selfishness, greed, Anger o Ego etc in them. All in all that was a time where all were so true and honest that they could make anything happen just by saying it. In this Yuga the people were very tall, around 33 ft and their average human lifespan was 100,000 years.
Then come the
Treta Yuga, where the people started dominating and conquering the world. In this Yuga Selfishness, Ego, Greediness had slowly made place in the mind of some people. As a result the honesty and the humanity that prevailed during the Satya Yuga started declining which also resulted in their physical and mental behavior. During this Yuda the people were around 22 ft tall and their life span reduced to around 10,000 Years.
Then
Dvapara Yuga came in to action, where inhumanity was it its pace which again resulted in reduction of physical stature and life span to around 11 ft tall and 1,000 Years respectively.
Then comes the climax Yuga that is the
Kali Yuga, which was the worst of all as in this Yuga, Crime and Darkness ruled. People did not act like humans any more, they started eating forbidden and dirty food. The environment is polluted, water and food become scarce. Families become non-existent. People started killing and hurting other living beings for their own selfish desires. In this Yuga the physical stature and life span of humans reduced to around 5.5ft and maximum of 100 Years of age.
Now if we see all the Yugas we can clearly make out the most upstanding Yuga was the Satya Yuga. If we compare the people in
Satya Yuga with other Yuga's people we will find them on the top, at a position of God as they were superior from the people of other Yugas and had supreme powers due to their supreme nature.
So as per their narration we are worshiping the people of Satya Yuga who we very superior to all the people from all other Yugas as they were the purest form of Human evolution.
Now coming to the 33 crore gods that has been depicted in the ancient Vedas,
It is assumed that the 33 crore gods comprises of the entire living beings who were there in Satya Yuga, who were superior in all aspects. They include Humans, Plants, Animals, Birds, Fish etc.
So if we see our world today, we can clearly see that we Humans have tried and have succeeded in bringing down and have destroyed other living beings who were once part of the 33 crore gods whom we worshiped and still worshiping in temples.
If we take a step back and look at the bigger picture we can see that we were indirectly worshiping the Mother Nature, which comprises of the Humans, Animals, Plants and other living beings who are also equally superior as humans in its own way. Now a time has come where the layer of selfishness and inhumanity in our eyes has stopped us from seeing the God within other living beings moving around us and have started killing them and using them for our own inhuman selfish desires.
In order to restore our humanity we really do not need to visit Temple on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays. We just need to understand that there is a God hidden somewhere inside every living being and we need to respect and treat them like a supreme being and then go to Temple and show you gratitude.
I feel the world has taken a wrong turn and has lost its way and still thinks that we are on the right path and will reach the height and can come close to God one day. Which unfortunately is not going to happen as we have lost our way long back and it is very difficult to take a U turns and go back to the right path.
I can only urge to the people who are reading my blog to once close your eyes for a moment and try to see the god within all the living beings around us and try to respect them and free them and show your gratitude every time you see them. Then only we can make this world a better place to live in.
We are searching god in Temple, inside a stone, however not realizing that there is God everywhere in all the living beings we see around us, even in the form of kid the boy in the picture is holding. We have somewhere misunderstood the hidden message that was depicted in the ancient Scripts.
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