Dr. Pradeep's Theological Threads

From Viharas to Vishnu, Idols to Ideologies—Unmasking the Great Temple Plot That Nobody Wants to Talk About ACT I: Enter the Temple, Exit the Original Veda Imagine walking into a Hindu temple today: incense smoke curls through the air, bells clang like divine doorbells, and deities are decked in more jewelry than a Kardashian wedding. A priest in a dhoti mumbles mantras you don’t understand, but you feel vaguely spiritual—partly because you just donated ₹101 in a desperate bid for a visa appointment. But here’s a question the Rig Veda might just whisper from 1500 BCE: “What temple?” Let’s start at the beginning. In the early Vedic period, there were no temples. No sanctums. No idols. No priests in line to swindle you with an “urgent puja” package for ₹5,001. The Rig Veda—the earliest and most authoritative of the four Vedas—offers hymn after hymn to Agni, Indra, Varuna, and Soma, but never once demands you to build a stone structure with a donation box. The sacred was natural: the sun...