The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 6/Lectures and Discourses/Formal Worship
FORMAL WORSHIP
(This lecture is reproduced from the Vedanta and the West. See Vol. IV.)
(Delivered in San Francisco area, April 10, 1900)
All of you who are students of the Bible . . . .understand that the whole
[of] Jewish history and Jewish' thought have been produced by two [types of]
teachers—priests and prophets, the priests representing the power of
conservatism, the prophets the power of progress. The whole thing is that a
conservative ritualism creeps in; formality gets hold of everything. This is
true of every country and every religion. Then come some new seers with new
visions; they preach new ideals and ideas and give a new push to society. In
a few generations the followers become so faithful to their masters' ideas
that they cannot see anything else. The most advanced, liberal preachers of
this age within a few years will be the most conservative priests. The
advanced thinkers, in their turn, will begin to hinder the man who goes a
little farther. They will not let anyone go farther than what they
themselves have attained. They are content to leave things as they are.
The power which works through the formative principles of every religion in
every country is manifested in the forms of religion. . . . Principles and
books, certain rules and movements—standing up, sitting down—all these
belong to the same category of worship Spiritual worship becomes
materialised in order that the majority of mankind can get hold of it. The
vast majority of mankind in every country are never [seen] to worship spirit
as spirit. It is not yet possible. I do not know if there ever will be a
time when they can. How many thousands in this city are ready to worship God
as spirit? Very few. They cannot; they live in the senses. You have to give
them cut and dried ideas. Tell them to do something physical: Stand up
twenty times; sit down twenty times. They will understand that. Tell them to
breathe in through one nostril and breathe out through the other. They will
understand that. All this idealism about spirit they cannot accept at all.
It is not their fault. . . . If you have the power to worship God as spirit,
good! But there was a time when you could not. . . . If the people are
crude, the religious conceptions are crude, and the forms are uncouth and
gross. If the people are refined and cultured, the forms are more beautiful.
There must be forms, only the forms change according to the times.
It is a curious phenomenon that there never was a religion started in this
world with more antagonism . . . [to the worship of forms] than
Mohammedanism. . . . The Mohammedans can have neither painting, nor
sculpture, nor music. . . . That would lead to formalism. The priest never
faces his audience. If he did, that would make a distinction. This way there
is none. And yet it was not two centuries after the Prophet's death before
saint worship [developed]. Here is the toe of the saint! There is the skin
of the saint! So it goes. Formal worship is one of the stages we have to
pass through.
Therefore, instead of crusading against it, let us take the best in worship
and study its underlying principles.
Of course, the lowest form of worship is what is known as [tree and stone
worship]. Every crude, uncultured man will take up anything and add to it
some idea [of his own]; and that will help him. He may worship a bit of
bone, or stone—anything. In all these crude states of worship man has
never worshipped a stone as stone, a tree as tree. You know that from common
sense. Scholars sometimes say that men worshipped stones and trees. That is
all nonsense. Tree worship is one of the stages through which the human race
passed. Never, really, was there ever worship of anything but the spirit by
man.
He is spirit [and] can feel nothing but spirit. Divine mind could never make
such a gross mistake as [to worship spirit as matter]. In this case, man
conceived the stone as spirit or the tree as spirit. He [imagined] that some
part of that Being resides in [the stone] or the tree, that [the stone or]
the tree has a soul.
Tree worship and serpent worship always go together. There is the tree of
knowledge. There must always be the tree, and the tree is somehow connected
with the serpent. These are the oldest [forms of worship]. Even there you
find that some particular tree or some particular stone is worshipped, not
all the [trees or] stones in the world.
A higher state in [formal worship is that of] images [of ancestors and God].
People make images of men who have died and imaginary images of God. Then
they worship those images.
Still higher is the worship of saints, of good men and women who have passed
on. Men worship their relics. [They feel that] the presence of the saints is
somehow in the relics, and that they will help them. [They believe that] if
they touch the saint's bone, they will be healed—not that the bone itself
heals, but that the saint who resides there does. . . .
These are all low states of worship and yet worship. We all have to pass
through them. It is only from an intellectual standpoint that they are not
good enough. In our hearts we cannot get rid of them. [If] you take from a
man all the saints and images and do not allow him to go into a temple, [he
will still] imagine all the gods. He has to. A man of eighty told me he
could not conceive God except as an old man with a long beard sitting on a
cloud. What does that show? His education is not complete. There has not
been any spiritual education, and he is unable to conceive anything except
in human terms.
There is still a higher order of formal worship—the world of symbolism.
The forms are still there, but they are neither trees, nor [stones], nor
images, nor relics of saints. They are symbols. There are all sorts [of
symbols] all over the world. The circle is a great symbol of eternity. . . .
There is the square; the well-known symbol of the cross; and two figures
like S and Z crossing each other.
Some people take it into their heads to see nothing in symbols. . . .
[Others want] all sorts of abracadabra. If you tell them plain, simple
truths, they will not accept them. . . . Human nature being [what it is],
the less they understand the better—the greater man [they think] you are.
In all ages in every country such worshippers are deluded by certain
diagrams and forms. Geometry was the greatest science of all. The vast
majority of the people knew nothing [of it. They believed that if] the
geometrist just drew a square and said abracadabra at the four corners, the
whole world would begin to turn, the heavens would open, and God would come
down and jump about and be a slave. There is a whole mass of lunatics today
poring over these things day and night. All this is a sort of disease. It is
not for the metaphysician at all; it is for the physician.
I am making fun, but I am so sorry. I see this problem so [grave] in India
These are signs of the decay of the race, of degradation and duress. The
sign of vigour, the sign of life, the sign of hope, the sign of health, the
sign of everything that is good, is strength. As long as the body lives,
there must be strength in the body, strength in the mind, [and strength] in
the hand. In wanting to get spiritual power through [all this abracadabra]
there is fear, fear of life. I do not mean that sort of symbolism.
But there is some truth in symbolistic. There cannot be any falsehood
without some truth behind it. There cannot be any imitation without
something real.
There is the symbolic form, of worship in the different religions. There are
fresh, vigorous, poetic, healthy symbols Think of the marvellous power the
symbol of the cross has had upon millions of people! Think of the symbol of
the crescent! Think of the magnetism of this one symbol! Everywhere there
are good and great symbols in the world. They interpret the spirit and bring
[about] certain conditions of the mind; as a rule we find [they create] a
tremendous power of faith and love.
Compare the Protestant with the Catholic [Church]. Who has produced more
saints, more martyrs within the last four hundred years [during which] both
have been in existence? The tremendous appeal of Catholic ceremonialism—
all those lights, incense, candles, and the robes of the priests—has a
great effect in itself. Protestantism is quite austere and unpoetic. The
Protestants have gained many things, have granted a great deal more freedom
in certain lines than the Catholics have, and so have a clear, more
individualized conception. That is all right, but they have lost a good
deal. . . . Take the paintings in the churches. That is an attempt at
poetry. If we are hungry for poetry, why not have it? Why not give the soul
what it wants? We have to have music. The Presbyterians were even against
music. They are the "Mohammedans" of the Christians. Down with all poetry!
Down with all ceremonials! Then they produce music. It appeals to the
senses. I have seen how collectively they strive for the ray of light there
over the pulpit.
Let the soul have its fill of poetry and religion represented on the
external plane. Why not . . . ? You cannot fight [formal worship]. It will
conquer again and again. . . . If you do not like what the Catholics do, do
better. But we will neither do anything better nor have the poetry that
already exists. That is a terrible state of things! Poetry is absolutely
necessary. You may be the greatest philosopher in the world. But philosophy
is the highest poetry. It is not dry bones It is essence of things. The
Reality itself is more poetic than any dualism. . . .
Learning has no place in religion; for the majority learning is a block in
the way. . . . A man my have read all the libraries in the world and many
not be religious at all, and another, who cannot perhaps write his own name,
senses religion and realises it. The whole of religion is our own inner
perception. When I use the words "man-making religion", I do not mean books,
nor dogmas, nor theories. I mean the man who has realised, has fully
perceived, something of that infinite presence in his own heart.
The man at whose feet I sat all my life—and it is only a few ideas of his
that try to teach—could [hardly] write his name at all. All my life I have
not seen another man like that, and I have travelled all over the world.
When I think of that man, I feel like a fool, because I want to read books
and he never did. He never wanted to lick the plates after other people had
eaten. That is why he was his own book. All my life I am repeating what Jack
said and John said, and never say anything myself. What glory is it that you
know what John said twenty-five years ago and what Jack said five years ago?
Tell me what you have to say.
Mind you, there is no value in learning. You are all mistaken in learning.
The only value of knowledge is in the strengthening, the disciplining, of
the mind. By all this eternal swallowing it is a wonder that we are not all
dyspeptics. Let us stop, and burn all the books, and get hold of ourselves
and think. You all talk [about] and get distracted over losing your
"individuality". You are losing it every moment of your lives by this
eternal swallowing. If any one of you believes what I teach, I will be
sorry. I will only be too glad if I can excite in you the power of thinking
for yourselves. . . . My ambition is to talk to men and women, not to sheep.
By men and women, I mean individuals. You are not little babies to drag all
the filthy rags from the street and bind them up into a doll!
"This is a place for learning! That man is placed in the university! He
knows all about what Mr. Blank said!" But Mr. Blank said nothing! If I had
the choice I would . . . say to the professor, "Get out! You are nobody! "
Remember this individualism at any cost! Think wrong if you will, no matter
whether you get truth or not. The whole point is to discipline the mind.
That truth which you swallow from others will not be yours. You cannot teach
truth from my mouth; neither can you learn truth from my mouth. None can
teach another. You have to realise truth and work it out for yourself
according to your own nature. . . . All must struggle to be individuals—
strong, standing on your own feet, thinking your own thoughts, realising
your own Self. No use swallowing doctrines others pass on—standing up
together like soldiers in jail, sitting down together, all eating the same
food, all nodding their heads at the same time. Variation is the sign of
life. Sameness is the sign of death.
Once I was in an Indian city, and an old man came to me. He said, "Swami,
teach me the way." I saw that that man was as dead as this table before me.
Mentally and spiritually he was really dead. I said, "will you do what I ask
you to do? Can you steal? Can you drink wine? Can you eat meat?"
The man [exclaimed], "What are you teaching!"
I said to him, "Did this wall ever steal? Did the wall ever drink wine?"
"No, sir."
Man steals, and he drinks wine, and becomes God. "I know you are not the
wall, my friend. Do something! Do something! " I saw that if that man stole,
his soul would be on the way to salvation.
How do I know that you are individuals—all saying the same thing, all
standing up and sitting down together? That is the road to death! Do
something for your souls! Do wrong if you please, but do something! You will
understand me by and by, if you do not just now. Old age has come upon the
soul, as it were. It has become rusty. The rust must be [rubbed off], and
then we go on. Now you understand why there is evil in the world. Go home
and think of that, just to take off that rustiness!
We pray for material things. To attain some end we worship God with
shopkeeping worship. Go on and pray for food and clothes! Worship is good.
Something is always better than nothing. "A blind uncle is better than no
uncle at all." A very rich young man becomes ill, and then to get rid of his
disease he begins to give to the poor. That is good, but it is not religion
yet, not spiritual religion. It is all on the material plane. What is
material, and what is not? When the world is the end and God the means to
attain that end, that is material. When God is the end and the world is only
the means to attain that end, spirituality has begun.
Thus, to the man who wants this [material] life enough, all his heavens are
a continuance of this life. He wants to see all the people who are dead, and
have a good time once more.
There was one of those ladies who bring the departed spirits down to us—a
medium. She was very large, yet she was called medium. Very good! This lady
liked me very much and invited me to come. The spirits were all very polite
to me. I had a very peculiar experience. You understand, it was a [seance],
midnight. The medium said, ". . . I see a ghost standing here. The ghost
tells me that there is a Hindu gentleman on that bench." I stood up and
said, "It required no ghost to tell you that."
There was a young man present who was married, intelligent, and well
educated. He was there to see his mother. The medium said, "So-and-so's
mother is here." This young man had been telling me about his mother. She
was very thin when she died, but the mother that came out of the screen! You
ought to have seen her! I wanted to see what this young man would do. To my
surprise he jumped up and embraced this spirit and said. "Oh mother, how
beautiful you have grown in the spirit land!" I said, "I am blessed that I
am here. It gives me an insight into human nature!"
Going back to our formal worship. . . . it is a low state of worship when
you worship God as a means to the end, which is this life and this world. .
. . The vast majority of [people] have never had any conception of anything
higher than this lump of flesh and the joys of the senses. Even in this
life, all the pleasures these poor souls have are the same as the beasts. .
. . They eat animals. They love their children. Is that all the glory of
man? And we worship God Almighty! What for? Just to give us these material
things and defend them all the time. . . . It means we have not gone beyond
the [animals and] birds. We are no better. We do not know any better. And
woe unto us, we should know better! The only difference is that they do not
have a God like ours. . . We have the same five senses [as the animals],
only theirs are better. We cannot eat a morsel of food with the relish that
a dog chews a bone. They have more pleasure in life than we; so we are a
little less than animals.
Why should you want to be something that any power in nature can operate
better? This is the most important question for you to think about. What do
you want—this life, these senses, this body, or something infinitely
higher and better, something from which there is no more fall, no more
change?
So what does it mean . . . ? You say, "Lord, give me my bread, my money!
Heal my diseases! Do this and that!" Every time you say that, you are
hypnotising yourselves with the idea, "I am matter, and this matter is the
goal." Every time you try to fulfil a material desire, you tell yourselves
that you are [the] body, that you are not spirit. . . .
Thank God, this is a dream! Thank God, for it will vanish! Thank God, there
is death, glorious death, because it ends all this delusion, this dream,
this fleshiness, this anguish. No dream can be eternal; it must end sooner
or later. There is none who can keep his dream for ever. I thank God that it
is so! Yet this form of worship is all right. Go on! To pray for something
is better than nothing. These are the stages through which we pass. These
are the first lessons. Gradually, the mind begins to think of something
higher than the senses, the body, the enjoyments of this world.
How does [man] do it? First he becomes a thinker. When you think upon a
problem, there is no sense enjoyment there, but [the] exquisite delight of
thought. . . . It is that that makes the man. . . . Take one great idea! It
deepens. Concentration comes. You no longer feel your body. Your senses have
stopped. You are above all physical senses. All that was manifesting itself
through the senses is concentrated upon that one idea. That moment you are
higher than the animal. You get the revelation none can take from you—a
direct perception of something higher than the body. . . . Therein is the
gold of mind, not upon the plane of the senses.
Thus, working through the plane of the senses, you get more and more entry
into the other regions, and then this world falls away from you. You get one
glimpse of that spirit, and then your senses and your sense-enjoyments, your
dinging to the flesh, will all melt away from you. Glimpse after glimpse
will come from the realm of spirit. You will have finished Yoga, and spirit
will stand revealed as spirit. Then you will begin the worship of God as
spirit. Then you will begin to understand that worship is not to gain
something. At heart, our worship was that infinite-finite element, love,
which [is] an eternal sacrifice at the feet of the Lord by the soul. "Thou
and not I. I am dead. Thou art, and I am not. I do not want wealth nor
beauty, no, nor even learning. I do not want salvation. If it be Thy will,
let me go into twenty million hells. I only want one thing: Be Thou my
love!"