Participant: Sadhguru, you are talking about liberating Hindu
temples from the clutches of the government.
If that happens, I understand management can be done by anybody,
but who should actually be in touch with the deity?
Will it again go back to the Brahmins?
Sadhguru, is this the only way to run a temple?
Sadhguru: (Laughs). Okay.
Ah, I'm not talking about it. I'm... I'm just trying to
translate what is written in the constitution
as to how any spiritual or if you want to call it religious spaces,
should be managed or run. The fundamental rights
in the country and in most parts of the world, almost every democratic nation,
everybody can run their spiritual and religious institutions the way they want.
Those who want, will go there; those who don't want, will not go there.
So, should a particular community come back?
This issue of only one community should be inside the temple
I think we have settled it with the Dravidian movements.
Communities were formed on the basis of profession.
If you are a carpenter, you are one kind of Achari. If you are a goldsmith,
you are another kind of Achari. If you are a blacksmith, you are another kind of Achari.
If you are a trader, you are one kind of Vaishya.
If you are agriculturist, you are another kind.
If you are a ruling cla... you know, if you are a militant class, you are one kind.
So, based on professions, communities happened over a period of time.
It is not that there was no trans-migration, people could go.
It is over a period of time, where unfortunately, people will perceive differences
as discrimination and use it as a tool of exploitation.
So, if the Hindu temples, 'if' you're saying, I am saying, they must be liberated.
Hindu temples must be liberated,
(Applause)
because one important aspect of this is, it never belonged to a particular religion.
It belonged to a particular trait. Devi temples are made one way;
Shiva temples are made another way; Krishna temples are made another way;
Vishnu temples are all in one way; Brahma temples in different ways.
And all that different kinds of Devis, they are made differently,
these were all energy centers established for different purposes. According to your purpose,
whoever you are, you could go there. And according to its nature,
different class of people manage different types of temples. Over a period of time,
for the maintenance of the temple, by the devotees constantly contributing to the temple,
temple's wealth grew. As the wealth grew, slowly certain communities tried to
kind of dominate that, because there was so much money and so much wealth.
So naturally, certain people dominated that.
Well, in the British era, you must understand this,
the Hindu temples were not taken over by the British Empire. It was taken over by a corporate
called East India Company. A business took over the temples.
Do you think the business was interested in your religion? No,
because they saw there was so much wealth,
they decided they must take it. In 1840, because these temples were managed by the English people
resistance rose in the Christian community, both back home for them and also here,
that Christian men are managing pagan temples, and we cannot condone that.
So they decided to hand it back. By then, they had shaved off all the jewelry,
this, that, they couldn't take the land to England. So, they took only what could be moved.
Some temples escaped this. Most temples lost their gold and diamond
and everything that they had, in huge quantities, because people went on contributing.
Only when some emergency like a famine or something came,
it was for the temple to decide how much it should spend on those situations.
Anyway, that's a history thing. Now, if we release it,
should the Brahmins come back? Not at all.
There was a time where if you had to be in the army, you had to be a Kshatriya;
if you have to be in the temple, you had to be a Brahmin.
Well, as you know today, you can join the Indian Army,
no matter what caste, creed or religion you are.
So, similarly the same should happen to the temples.
The only thing is the necessary training. So, we can open up institutions
which will do the training, so, it does not matter what religion or caste you are,
you should still be able to serve. Similarly, we must establish institutions,
where we will train people – What should happen in a Shiva temple,
what should happen in a Krishna temple,
what should happen in a Vishnu temple, what should happen in a Devi temple (Applause).
So, whoever learns the process and passes the examination (Laughter),
they will run the temple. Well, right here at Isha Yoga Center, this is a classic example.
Here the Bhairavi Devi, a stringent training process,
because this has a certain level of ritual involved. Only women can do it.
Men are only in the outskirts of the temple.
They cannot go in because that's the nature of the consecration. Here in the Dhyanalinga temple
one half of the month, the lunar month, men manage it.
Another half of the lunar month, women manage it.
But, they're all Bhrahmacharis, both ways. They're all ash people. Because he's ash.
That is, beyond the twelve number he is like that.
Now, there's a Kala Bhairava temple coming up,
you will see there will be totally different breed of people managing that.
Yes, because that serves not only the living; that is built to serve the dead.
So, that needs a completely different kind of involvement,
different kind of competence to manage that. And even in terms of who comes into the temple,
see, here people of all kinds of religions, caste, creed, everybody's coming,
nobody checks who is who, because we are not interested 'who your father was.'
We are only interested 'where you want to go.'
This is the fundamental of democracy, I'm telling you. The fundamental of democracy is,
we are not interested who your father was we are only interested who you are. That's democracy.
That is the basis of spirituality. We don't care who your father was or your grandfather was.
Whatever he might have been, what are you, where do you want to go?
This is all the concern of a spiritual process.
So, temples were not places of worship,
temples were not places where one man leads the prayer and everybody follows what he says.
It never was. Priest only conducted a process.
He's just there to facilitate; he's never ruling the place.
He's never dominating the place, he's never giving a teaching, nobody ever gives a teaching
or philosophy or any kind of stirring up of the society.
This is very important for the future of the world. So, do not just call them Hindu temples,
they are really temples, where human beings can transform themselves,
human beings can nourish themselves for their inner development.
So, right now, I am saying even mosques and churches and everything should become like this.
Let us say I like one aspect of what they're doing in a mosque, why can't I go there?
No, it's all segmented now. You can only go here; they can only go there.
Fortunately, we've changed this completely. Here, there are a whole lot of people coming,
many ladies coming, burqa-clad ladies, they like Dhyanalinga, they like to sit there.
Ah, Bhairavi is probably too ritualistic for them, they just look like this and go away,
but they like Dhyanalinga, they come there.
Many come only for the theerthkund, you know, the Suryakund and the Chandrakund.
It is fine with us. We don't force anybody to go here.
This is a certain kind, this needs a different kind of involvement,
that needs a different kind of involvement. As long as a human being
is willing to follow the basic norms for which it is set up,
basic purpose for which it is set up
and basic norms which facilitate that purpose,
any human being should be allowed not only to enter the place, also to be in the sanctum.
If somebody who is born as a whatever nonsense, high class, high caste, low caste,
Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Jew, you know, Sikh, whatever
if they are drawn to a certain aspect
and if they are willing to go through the necessary preparatory steps,
today it can be established as an institution. You must understand,
what was institutions has all been painted negatively as some kind of caste system.
Now, institutions which trained blacksmiths have become blacksmith caste.
It's an institution. Unfortunately, somehow the goldsmith people started propagating
that goldsmiths are superior to blacksmiths
though you cannot live without a blacksmith in a society,
you can very well live without a goldsmith (Laughter). Yes! So, this
superiority, inferiority business is something that's happened later on.
The temple never had that. See temple means, it is trying to make a certain dimension of life
which is crossing the boundaries of one's physical nature available to people,
available for people to experience that dimension. If you cross
the boundaries of physicality, you have crossed all boundaries
and divisions that you have created in the world in the name of caste, creed,
gender, nonsense, all kinds of nonsense.
See, all these things have happened in many temples – they don't allow foreigners.
See, there was a time where in India there were boards
‘Indians and dogs are not allowed into this place’.
So in reaction, you put it up in your temple – ‘Foreigners not allowed’.
This was your little reaction. And also it was true,
people came in just to desecrate the temple.
They come in... it is a.. any number of incidents,
where they come inside, and they want to spit in the temple.
Any number of incidents where intentionally they want to urinate in the temple.
Those were the times of occupation. That is gone. Today if somebody who is not born in India
wants to come into the temple, they’re coming in because they genuinely want to come,
not to desecrate it, not to dishonor it, they’re really coming because they want to experience it
So, nationality, gender, caste, creed, nothing matters,
because this is a dimension... temple is a dimension where you transact with
that which is beyond your physical nature. This is open to every human being,
not only for management, not only for use, also
to be in touch with the sanctum sanctorum, it is open to everybody.
I would like to see that... There were Maas here who were African in origin.
Now there are people from all over, some from United States, some from India.
I would like to see (Laughs) every kind, maybe Chinese, Japanese, this, that, works everything.
It’s important. This is important not just for the temple; this is important for humanity,
that without discrimination, everybody can aspire to grow,
everybody can aspire to touch dimensions beyond the limitations of who we are right now.
This is the reason why I’m asking for liberating the temple for government clutches
because they’re still hanging on to a nasty part of the history which was there.
It’s time to eradicate that and build a grand future (Applause).