CONVENIENT RITUALS ?

There are a lot of misconceptions about the plethora of rituals that are practiced in Indian Households. Without dissecting each ritual, we can safely say that they have overstayed their time, and to suit the conveniences of people they have been convoluted and misunderstood by the masses. Imagine attending college lectures without really listening to the lecturer and simply jotting down points presented on the board in your notebook without understanding them.

Initially, the rituals around religions and other specific events started as a means to connect the society and build solidarity within the commune. As people worked towards something in common and then witnessed the ritual practice, they realised oneness within, and with the commune, they resided . Each way has its own practices and scientific value. But it has all been lost to time and convenience. Just like a sentence spoken by the first person gets convoluted till it reaches the last person in the chain while playing Chinese whispers.

But does following these rituals and traditions, apart from the sake of it, really define us? SHOULD it define us and our culture? The very practices the meaning of which we have forgotten? Just mindless participation without any logical reasoning or foundations? The truth is we have entered a new era where we have become more connected than ever with the internet’s help, yet we have become aloof to our roots. Or so we think. The sources where we have grown have their advantages and disadvantages. Every new solution to a problem has a new set of pros and cons; there is nothing new about it.

But when the rituals and traditions of a nation try to hold on to the sands of time flowing naturally and not accept the changes in a positive light, then it becomes regressive. It is fundamentally wrong to wholeheartedly accept a yesteryear’s con just because we could accept the problems that came with it in the context of morality. This regressive nature of discerning the changes in a negative light has already damaged the spirit core of our belief system whose main aim is to do good. How is it correct when our regressive traditions and rituals make us wait for an auspicious day to do our good deeds? Imagine a doctor not doing a due surgery, citing that it is not an auspicious time to do it.

We have made religion with a whim to control our inherent fears and inhibitions. Rather than developing ourselves psychologically and emotionally, we opt for a make-believe practice that has served its purpose long ago. Does a child cry out complaining that the adults have broken the very sanctity of the alphabet by making words out of them? Sounds stupid, doesn’t it? But still, we fail to see our stupidity at other complex levels; rather, we ignore it, citing some false beliefs ingrained in us since our childhood that was filled with illogical rituals that had shown us the light centuries ago.

In the 21st century instead of thinking ahead, we are busy thinking back holding on dearly to something that has unbeknownst to us put an epidemic of rot in the construction of our belief systems. Instead of growing and coming out of the seed, we want to go back into that darkness where the first seed was sown. We have forgotten that it was buried so that we could grow out of it and make our truth based on our living times. But we fail again and again to realize that it was just a context provided to us and not the genuine reality which we had to make for ourselves.

There is a very thin line between faith and being a savage that doesn’t know the fundamental difference between raw food and a cooked meal. At this moment would one prefer to eat raw vegetables with all the pesticides and insecticides being used? NO! Here we are ready to adapt to new times, but if someone talks about faith, religion, and its rituals & traditions, people go berserk and violent holding on to their religion as it serves them.

The only thing religion supports today at a micro and macro level are excuses for nefarious activities corrupting our developed society. It almost feels like ‘god’ itself planted various corrupt seeds of different convenient religions to see if humanity is capable enough to sift itself from it to grow and holistically develop itself. We desperately need to get in touch with the insights we already have within us and start to detach ourselves from this darkness of faith. So intricately carved are these things that it perfectly latches on to individual and group psyches and feeds off it showing us a false reflection of utopia that not only doesn’t exist, but any reasonable person could conclude that it is a shrewdly placed mirage in this barren desert of religion.

Just like fast food is not healthy yet convenient for us, these sets of rituals and our religion are not only unhealthy for us but have also become inconvenient according to our present times. Fearing and going against change will only make us obsolete. Our next generation will suffer the aftershocks of religion, stunting our growth at more levels than the travesty of a nuclear bomb detonation.

Is it time to rethink our concepts and conditioning from time to time?

Shourya Chourey