There are many thousands of temples in India, very old, five thousand, three thousand years old. Why? The ācāryas wanted to give facility to the common man to enter into spiritual life. That is the idea.
It is not childish. Rather, the so-called meditation is childish. You cannot . . . If you do not know what is God, how you can meditate upon Him? Meditation mean dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yogino (SB 12.13.1). The yogīs perform meditation. Why? To concentrate their mind on the Viṣṇu form. You'll find some pictures, that everyone is depicted with the Viṣṇu form in the core of their heart. That is real yoga, indriya-samyamaḥ. Real yoga means indriya-samyamaḥ. Our senses are so much disturbed, agitated always. So if you can control your sensory organs to your, employ them in the matter of understanding God: yoga indriya-samyamaḥ.
Real purpose of yoga is to control the senses. Very, very difficult. Even five thousand years ago, when Arjuna was being instructed on the yoga system, concentrating the mind, fixing up the mind on Kṛṣṇa, or Viṣṇu, the same thing, so Arjuna said, "My dear Kṛṣṇa, it is very difficult." Cañcalaṁ hi manaḥ kṛṣṇa pramāthi balavad dṛḍham (BG 6.34). "It is not possible, for me at least." Yes, those who are busy, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas. Brāhmaṇa may be able. Not nowadays brāhmaṇa; those who are actually brāhmaṇa, because they practice samaḥ, damaḥ, satyam, śaucam, controlling the mind, controlling the senses, brahmacārī. They can do that. But the kṣatriyas and the vaiśyas, they cannot, because they have not practiced samaḥ, damaḥ. But at the present moment in this age, Kali-yuga, everyone is śūdra, nobody is brāhmaṇa, by the caste system or by birthright. Śudra. Kalau śūdra sambhavaḥ. So in this age, how to concentrate the mind upon Kṛṣṇa, this practice: chanting.
- harer nāma harer nāma harer nāma eva kevalaṁ
- kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā
- (CC Adi 17.21)