Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c19.3

c19.3

**It was not Mechanized, as in large Educational Organizations.** And yet Ancient India was not lacking in religious institutions like temples and *Maṭhas* and *Tīrthas*, or places of pilgrimage where crowds gather in the interests of religious life. That is because the external aspect or element of these organizations does not supersede or interfere with the inner religious life of the individuals they bring together. Hinduism does not believe in congregational worship. There is solitude in a crowd. The press of pilgrims in a crowded temple on a sacred day of festival leaves every individual pilgrim to himself, to say his personal prayers by himself, in his own way, and in secret and private. There is an inspiring tradition that at the temple of Jagannath at Puri, which is notorious for its daily crowds of worshipping pilgrims, Lord Chaitanya was free to take to a solitary corner of the temple, at some distance from the image of the deity Jagannath, where he was always seen in the trance of meditation on the deity.