Really, many dull-witted moderns are puzzled at the purpose of all the constructions and conditions, conventions and customs, that revolve around the temple. They cannot grasp the significance of any reply that is beyond their limited understanding. A patient suffering from high fever will find even sweet things bitter; so too, those afflicted with the high fever of worldliness can never taste the real sweetness of truth. The fever must subside; then, they can appreciate the value of things of the spirit.

What is the goal of human life? What is the objective that man must realise? Is it just eating, drinking, sleeping, tasting a little joy and grief and finally dying, like any bird or beast? No, certainly not. A little thought will reveal that it is not so. The goal is Brahma-Sakshathkara, the realisation of the Absolute, of Brahmam! Without that, no man can attain Santhi. He must win that Bliss of Divine Grace. However much one strives to extract happiness from the multiplicity of worldly things, the quantum of satisfaction is very little; as for Peace or Santhi, one finds its impossible to get it through things of the world. The mind can have Santhi only when it merges in the Absolute Consciousness, the Primal Cause, the Unchanging Existence.

Even the most comfortable house, equipped with all the luxuries man craves for, even heaps of treasure, are helpless to endow one with Santhi. That can be won only by surrender to God, who is the very core of one's being, the very source of all life and living. Consider this: Are those lucky enough to possess wealth, gold, property and comfort having Santhi? Nor is this all. Are men highly learned, persons of extraordinary beauty, of super-human physical strength - are these at least at peace with themselves and the world? What is the reason for the misery of even these?

The reason is: they have forgotten the Divine basis of Creation, they have ignored the one Absolute Underlying Principle. All lives, lived without Faith, and Bhakthi to the One Supreme Overlord, are despicable; lives spent without tasting the Nectar of the Divine Principle are all wasted chances.

It is really a strange turn of events...! Your Genuine basis, the Fountain of your joy, your Ultimate fundamental, the Paramartha Principle has become for you something outside and beyond, unnecessary, unsought for; the world with its tinsel tawdriness has become near and native, necessary and desirable.