In plain words
Religion is never, at any time, a purely personal matter — though, since a person's own belief is theirs alone and a person's own practice is theirs alone, one might think religion is in some sense personal. But only up to a point: only so long as one does not violate the sanātana traditions. Yet we do not find even the learned, who say that God, religion and caste do not exist, content to keep such beliefs to themselves. Why is this? Many people who say either that God does not exist, or that ritual observance is mere blind superstition, are to be seen around us. Such people are not simply ignorant, nor are they uneducated — they know everything; they are great, learned men. When such men call these rites superstitions, what is the deeper meaning behind their saying so? If they stopped at merely saying it, that would be somewhat better still; even if they only kept silent about it, society would come to no harm at all. But that is not how they behave.
Here is a small example. Drinking intoxicants such as toddy and country liquor is, admittedly, a personal matter. But do other people actually welcome it as such? They do not, do they? However much one may try to defend such things as purely personal, those vices — whether subtly or grossly — cannot help but show their effect upon society as a whole. Is that not so? If ordinary people behave this way, not much harm follows; but when respected elders of society and the community behave this way, the common people are led onto the crooked path. The works composed by Vyāsa, Vālmīki and others are exceedingly ancient. It is for this very reason that they came to be called Purāṇas. Yet though their origin lies in the far distant past, old age has never managed to touch them at all. Were it not so, people from the bridge of Rāma to the Himālayas would not still be longing for them today. Is this not what scriptures are? In their eternal youthfulness — spanning past, present and time gone by, without any distinction — whoever takes them up, whenever, wherever, must remain immersed in an ocean of bliss.