Page 20 - All India Magazine Nov-2025

its web and spread it over the whole place, and was catching in it
and then absorbing all the forces emanating from people's devo-
tion, their prayers and all that. It was not a very cheering sight;
the people who were there and were praying, felt a divine touch,
they received all kinds of boo from their prayers, and yet what
was there was this, this thing. But they had their faith which could
change that evil thing into something good in them; they had their
faith. So, truly, if I had gone and told them, "Do you think you are
praying to God? It is an enormous vital spider that's feeding upon
all your forces!", that would really not have been very charitable.
And that's how it is most of the time, almost everywhere; it is a
vital force which is there, for these vital entities feed upon the
vibration of human emotions, and very few people, very few, an
insignificant number, go to church or temple with a true religious
feeling, that is, not to pray and beg for something from God but
to offer themselves, give thanks, aspire, give themselves. There
is hardly one in a million who does that. So they do not have the
power of changing the atmosphere. Perhaps when they are there,
they manage to get across, break through and go somewhere and
touch something divine. But the large majority of people who go
only because of superstition, egoism and self-interest, create an
atmosphere of this kind, and that is what you breathe in when you
go to a church or temple. Only, as you go there with a very good
feeling, you tell yourself, "Oh, what a quiet place for meditation!"
I am sorry, but that's how it is. I tell you I have deliberately
tried this experiment a little everywhere. Maybe I found some very
tiny places, like a tiny village church at times, where there was a
very quiet little spot for meditation, very still, very silent, where
there was some aspiration; but this was so rare! I have seen the
beautiful churches of Italy, magnificent places; they were full of
these vital beings and full of terror. I remember painting in a basil-
ica of Venice, and while I was working, in the confessional a priest
was hearing the confession of a poor woman. Well, it was truly

20 All India Magazine, November 2025