Sri Sai Baba`S:Charters And Sayings

TWENTIETH TALK 401

character. Study the Hindu Religion in any of its
various manifestations and you will find that its
relations are always individual relations; there is
nothing like whafc^ Christians call public worship of
any sort whatever. Each man goes up to the temple
and makes his own little offering of rice, or fruit or
flowers; there is nothing like congregational work.
It is the same with the Buddhists. The people join
together each morning to take the obligations of the
Five Commandments. That is the only thing that
could be thought of as a public service, and even then
it is not repeated at any set time, but as sufficient
people gather in the temple. The idea of a great public
service commenced practically with Christianity, and
it is a new id^a. You may or may not feel it, each
individual of you, desirable or necessary for you, but it
does not in the least alter the fact that it is a scheme—
and a very ingenious scheme—for the spreadingof force
over the whole country-side. The theory of the Christ-
ian Church is that churches shall exist in every town
and every village. So in Christian countries they do.
By the organisation of the church, each of them is a
centre for the radiation of spiritual force. It does not
matter, for the purpose of that radiation, what sort
of priest you have in charge of the service; it does
not matter whether there is a congregation or not,
practically nothing matters so long as the appointed
ritual is carried out. There is the daily sacrifice of
the Mass, as the Catholics call it—the celebration of