1. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupada on ringing the temple bell

    His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura once made this comment in a lecture:

    The neophyte Vaisnava devotees' ringing the bell even once during worship of the Deity of the Supreme Lord is a million times more valuable, spiritually and otherwise, than the charitable fruitive workers building many hospitals, feeding thousands of the poor, or building homes, or even the empirical philosophers' Vedic studies, meditation, austerities, and penances.

    (From "Renunciation Through Wisdom" by Srila Prabhupada)

     

    This quote is given as follows in "Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Vaibhava":

    The thousands of karmis who have opened innumerable hospitals, old age homes, centers for the poor, and schools, and the thousands of jnanis who have undergone meditation and severe austerities, are insignificant compared to a single kanistha-adhikari Vaisnava once ringing the bell before the Lord's deity. This is not sectarianism, but plain truth. Atheists are wholly incapable of realizing this; thus they become either direct or indirect blasphemers of devotional service, or adherents to the doctrine of harmonistic all-inclusiveness.

    (Source: Amrta Vani 102 – 3; Sri Srila Prabhupadera Upadesamrta 174).