Swami Vivekananda, he writes to one of his American disciples.

I think it was Joseph in MacLeod, probably.

He wrote that, I have started these two places.

One in the Himalayas for non-dualism.

So that is Adduik Ashram in Maya, up in the Himalayas.

And one here on the bank of the ganges, which is he referring to, he's referring to Beludmat, with all rituals, all

traditional worship. And then Swami Gweweh Kandha says, let's see how it goes. So after more than 100 years, by far the much more popular and well-known, beloved place is

Bellulumat, with all the ritual and the devotion and the music and the pojas and all of it

together.

And the ashram in the Himalayas continues to be an austere place.

Still beloved, but still.

Both are doing well.

I guess Belmont is doing much better.

I myself was never particularly drawn to ritualistic worship.

I've never been particularly interested.

But whenever I have practiced it, and it's in the Ramakrishna order,

everybody has to do ritualistic worship for some time.

Whenever I've practiced it, I've only been benefited by it.

I've found it very beneficial.

It creates a satwick power in the mind, a satwick attitude in the mind.

It certainly creates a spiritual atmosphere around his ritualistic worship.

Um, um... is ritualistic worship. So Durga Pooja is as ritualistic as you can get.

...