“there is no such thing as public worship in India. Temples are erected mostly by rich persons as a meritorious religious act. If a man has much property, he wants to build a temple. In that he puts a symbol or an image of an Incarnation of God, and dedicates it to worship in the name of God. The worship is akin to that which is conducted in Roman Catholic churches, very much like the mass, reading certain sentences from the sacred books, waving a light before the image, and treating the image in every respect as we treat a great man.”

“The man who goes to a temple is not considered thereby a better man than he who never goes. More properly, the latter is considered the more religious man, for religion in India is to each man his own private affair.”

“And this worship is entirely mental, for another man does not hear or know what he is doing.”

The above passages are portions of a lecture in the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Vol 4 from the lecture My Master. For context, Swamiji was telling the history of his guru, Ramakrishna Paramhansa, and how he started as a priest, which was seen as a degrading job for a Brahmin during those times. He then briefly explained the difference between Churches and Mandirs (temples).

 

I found this particularly interesting because many times nowadays we see people within the Hindu community, especially it’s leaders, boast about their attendance to their respective mandirs and try to make a public show of their worship and devotion. To me this seems like the exact opposite of what Swamiji is saying, instead of taking an individual spiritual journey and a very personal religion people try to make it a public affair. And in some cases, even shame people who don’t attend as frequently as them or worship in the same way as them. Very confusing how this is the case.

Resource:

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_4/Lectures_and_Discourses/My_Master