Sri Ramakrishna never liked showy religion; & much of religion today is showy & also noisy. That is why Swami Vivekananda wrote in a letter (The Complete Works, Vol. VII (1958), p. 489):
         ‘Religions of the world have become lifeless mockeries. What the world wants is character. The world is in need for those whose life is one burning love, selfless. That love will make every word tell the thunderbolt.’

         The more character you have, the more religion you have. Showy religion is no religion at all. Sri Ramakrishna warns us against such a religion. We read this saying of his in the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna:

         Some people pose as being very pious wearing holy tulasi leaves in their ears, & the next moment they go out & cheat somebody, or do other evil acts; both these can go, & have gone, together in India. But the truly spiritual man will never do such things. Show that you are spiritual by your love, by your human concern, by your spirit service. That is a central teaching of Sri Ramakrishna; & it is also a central teaching of all our sastras, or books of the science of religion. They exhort us to live religion & thus manifest the Divine that is within. Swami Vivekananda therefore defines religion thus:

         When that Divinity manifests even a little, concern for other individuals will come, a spirit of service will come, efficiency will come. And exploitation, litigiousness, weakness, fear, & inefficiency--these things will disappear. The Hindus have been, & still are, among the most litigious people in the world. We are very fond of quarrelling, fighting, & going to the courts--formerly even up to the British Privy Council, but now to our own supreme court --for flimsy causes. Why? Because we have had only piety- fringed worldliness, or in other words, religiosity only, but very little true religion. That piety of ours did not reveal any spiritual growth. Now the Hindu must change & a new Hindu must emerge, who will sense the presence of god in himself or herself & in every other human being will make his or her love of God flow into the channels of love & service of man.

         Temples are meant to inspire you with this vision. What you take in by worship & contemplation, that you must pour out in love & service. When that vision, & conduct in the light of that vision, are not there, then temples & worship & rituals, which in our Sanatana Dharma are aesthetically & spiritually beautiful, become increasingly reduced to static pietistic forms, bereft of all spiritual meaning & fruits. This is the glowing theme of a passage in the Srimad Bhagavatam, which our people will do well to understand & assimilate today, so that our temples, & all other forms of worship, may become fruitful in terms of character & dynamic spirituality for which they are meant. Contrasting static piety with dynamic spirituality, god in his incarnation as kapila, addressing His mother Devahuti, says (Srimad Bhagavatam, III. Xxix.21-6):

         ‘I am present always, in every being, as the very self of all; but mortal man, by insulting Me in man, makes his worship of Me in images a mere farce.’
         ‘He who worships Me in images, foolishly ignoring My presence in all beings as their Self & Lord, his worship is in vain, like pouring oblations of ghee (clarified butter) in ashes (instead of in the fire).’
         ‘That man can never attain peace of mind who, out of pride & a (wrong) sense of separateness, & practicing inveterate enmity to other beings, really practices enmity towards Me who exists in other bodies.’
         ‘O sinless one, I am not at all pleased with the worship, accompanied (though it be) with big & small offerings & rituals, offered to Me, in images, by him who insults the dignity of all beings.’
         ‘Let worship be offered to Me, the lord, in images, accompanied with meticulous discharge of one’s duties (to society), till one learns to see Me in one’s own heart.’
         ‘He who makes the slightest difference between himself & others-he who dwells on this (false) sense of separateness-spiritual death shall be his terrible reward.’