Gain Through Prayer and Sadhana

Swami Vishwananda, Mother Mary and Baby Christ Jesus
Why do we visit temples? Why do we go to prayers? Know that prayers also are part of Sadhana, spiritual practices. To advance our sadhana is also why we go to pilgrimage places. These places of prayer and pilgrimages are areas where accumulated spiritual energies are gathered in one place.

When you go to prayer or when you go to spiritual places, to holy places, you are always going to gain something. You are profiting from all the prayers and all the vibrations which have been collected in those places. When you go there your sadhana gets amplified. It becomes more intense and more powerful. It’s the same thing when you sit down at the same place every day. When you sit at the same spot at the same time each day, you build up certain energy [as in sitting for meditation]. Likewise, when you chant the same Mantra, the energy gets built up. Don’t think that when you get up from the same place, your meditation, that the energy is dissipated. The energy is always there; it’s solely defined at that place.

Vishnu Temple
Vaishnavite Pilgrimage Place in Badrinath, India
Badrinath temple, sometimes called Badrinarayan temple, is situated along the Alaknanda river, in Badrinath, India. It is considered to be one of the holiest Hindu temples, and is dedicated to god, Vishnu. The temple and town is also of the 108 Divya Desams, holy shrines for Vaishnavites. The temple is open only six months every year (between the end of April and the beginning of November), due to extreme weather conditions in the high Himalayas.

Several murtis are worshipped in the temple. The most important is a one meter tall statue of Vishnu as Lord Badrinarayan, made of black Saligram stone. The statue is considered by many Hindus to be one of eight swayam vyakta keshtras, or self-manifested statues of Vishnu. The murti depicts Vishnu sitting in meditative posture, rather than His far more typical reclining pose. In November each year, when the town of Badrinath is closed, the image is moved to nearby Jyotirmath. [Excerpted from Wikipedia]