People… think they can do anything, and then they can go to a holy place, and their sins will be forgiven. If a man goes with an impure mind into a temple, he adds to the sins that he had already, and goes home a worse man than when he left it…. It is most difficult to live in a tirtha; for, if sin is committed in any ordinary place, it can easily be removed, but sin committed in a tirtha cannot be removed. This is the gist of all worship – to be pure and to do good to others.
He who sees Shiv in the poor, in the weak and in the diseased, really worships Shiv; and if he sees Shiv only in the image, his worship is but preliminary. He who has served and helped one poor man seeing Shiv in him, without thinking of his caste, creed, race or anything else, with him, Shiv is more pleased than with the man who sees Him only in temples.
