14 August 2026
Friday
People who go about this land will notice the large concourses that attend temples, partake in bhajan and namasankirtan where the glory of God is sung with demonstrative enthusiasm, and mill around venerable personalities who preach and teach the ways of God, and they infer that this is a sacred land full of pious individuals who tread the pilgrim path to Divinity. But these are hollow rituals, empty exercises, exhibitionistic picnics, or hikes; the pilgrims are more interested in shopping, both in the temple and the bazaars, than in stopping the ungodly habits to which they are attached! They are unaware of the basic truth of God, nor are they anxious to earn that awareness by the hard path of discipline. Without an intellectual grasp of the fundamentals of the Divine Principle, all vows, fasts, and vigils are imitative, routine, mechanical activities that involve a waste of time and energy. You must impress on your consciousness that Nature is alive since God is life; Nature appears everlasting since God is eternal; Nature is but a reflection of God! He lends the colour of order, purpose, and activity to inert Nature! Without the motivator, Nature is helpless and powerless.
From Swami’s discourse of 23 February 1971
People who go about this land will notice the large concourses that attend temples, partake in bhajan and namasankirtan where the glory of God is sung with demonstrative enthusiasm, and mill around venerable personalities who preach and teach the ways of God, and they infer that this is a sacred land full of pious individuals who tread the pilgrim path to Divinity. But these are hollow rituals, empty exercises, exhibitionistic picnics, or hikes; the pilgrims are more interested in shopping, both in the temple and the bazaars, than in stopping the ungodly habits to which they are attached! They are unaware of the basic truth of God, nor are they anxious to earn that awareness by the hard path of discipline. Without an intellectual grasp of the fundamentals of the Divine Principle, all vows, fasts, and vigils are imitative, routine, mechanical activities that involve a waste of time and energy. You must impress on your consciousness that Nature is alive since God is life; Nature appears everlasting since God is eternal; Nature is but a reflection of God! He lends the colour of order, purpose, and activity to inert Nature! Without the motivator, Nature is helpless and powerless.