. . . Devotion to God: Where to draw a line? . . . These are just my views

Whichever religion we may follow, may it be Hindu/Muslim/Christian/any religion for that matter, we have people who spend different proportions of time praying to God. There are several views depending upon the length of time being spent and the space being occupied by religious workers in constructing worship areas for their God(s). I would like to give my own views on various issues pertaining to these factors. I would like to start by saying to everyone that I am not partial to any religion and I am speaking in a single sense taking God as one.

God gave us the whole Earth to live in, and when there are God’s creations suffering without place to live in, do we definitely need to construct so many worshipping areas for God? God will definitely not prefer that. In those days, worshipping areas were constructed by occupying so many acres of land that could have been effectively used for agriculture. I don’t mean to say that God does not need a place, but not so vast as it could have been used effectively for serving the poor, physically challenged, and mentally challenged, and according to me service to such people is equivalent to service to God.

In South India, especially in the southern states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, etc., you can see worshipping areas for God at least in every street. I don’t mean to say that’s wrong, but when we are already running short of places like libraries, hospitals, physical fitness centers, etc. that are needed for the growth of mental and physical ability of people, why should we concentrate too much on spiritual activities? Of course, spiritual living is also necessary, but not at the rate of a worshipping area in every street that too one for every religion.

We need to remember one thing: “A healthy mind in a sound body.” Rather than spending most of the time in worshipping areas, we can effectively use the time that we have which is considered to be precious than anything else. Once time is lost, it cannot be regained. I have seen a few people who spend most of the time, and at times, the whole day in the worshipping area expecting God to show the right path. But they seldom take any effort to improve their status by putting in hard work to learn some skill and master it. Spirituality is definitely necessary, but that’s not the only quality one can have.

Spirituality is an added quality and one should maintain a sound health, a sound mind and a life with neat habits. Those are the ones that will make the spiritual life also comfortable. Instead of spending hours together in worshipping God, let’s spend just few minutes to remember God and thank God for whatever we have with us as God’s gift. That should be sufficient and God wants us to effectively use the gifts that have been given to us. Among all the gifts given to us by God, the most previous one is time and let’s not utilize all the time thinking only about God.

I don’t mean to say worshipping areas should not be there. Even though God is omnipresent and we all know that, we need to have a dedicated place where we can worship God. This is something like though the whole house is ours’, we need a dedicated dining room where we can have food and a bed room where we can sleep. So, we need to bring this awareness within ourselves and think upon it for a second if we really need so many worshipping areas within a single locality. The big job that we have now is to bring this awareness among other people and show them what they have to do.

In major cities, this awareness has started spreading and the government has taken steps to remove worshipping areas that were constructed by religious workers using encroachments wherein the land actually does not belong to the worshipping area. Such encroachment areas can be effectively used for constructing libraries and other public-welfare clubs that can be of more help to the public. Let’s have minimal worshipping areas and try to do something that will help the majority of the public who are helpless. I hope everyone takes this in the right sense.