The Living Temple

At the center of Calcutta, Dakshineswar Kali Temple's humble rooms resounded with soft devotional chants. Young Narendranath, soon to become Swami Vivekananda, sat quietly at the side of his master, Sri Ramakrishna, his mind full of questions that words had not yet expressed.

That day, Ramakrishna had been fasting, refusing to eat despite his frail health. Concerned, Narendra urged, “Master, why do you treat your body with such neglect? Isn’t this body the very vessel through which you speak of the Divine?”

Ramakrishna smiled faintly and looked toward the Ganges.

“My child,” he said, “there is but one temple – the body. It is the only temple that ever truly existed. If we cannot respect and purify the temple within, no stone shrine outside will bring us closer to the truth.”

Narendra frowned, still restless. “But you say renounce the world. Is not the body a part of that?”

Ramakrishna’s eyes twinkled. “Yes, renounce the world, but not the truth in the world. Your body is not for indulgence, but for service. Treat it not as a burden, but as a sacred flame. Only when you worship this living temple with discipline, awareness, and compassion, will you realize the God within.”

That evening, Narendra sat in meditation, for the first time not just to seek God in the sky or scriptures, but to feel Him in his very breath, his heartbeats, the silent awareness glowing from within.

Years later, as Swami Vivekananda would travel the world spreading the Vedantic truth, those words of Ramakrishna would ring within him 

“There is but one temple – the body.”