RITUALS
Rituals have been a part of every religion, from the time of the
inception of the religion and those that exist today. But we often find people
referring to Our Hindu religion as a very “ritualistic religion”, i.e. a
religion consisting of many rituals. The way they are being conducted now, in
these times has made many understand “Ritual” as just an act done or as an act
to be done with!. ‘It is a ritual to be gone through’ is a common refrain. It
has come to mean anything done mechanically without applying our minds to it.
Is it so bad as all that? What is a ritual after all?
Whenever a teacher comes to the classroom, the students stand up. It is
a ritual. Whenever the President enters the Parliament House, all the members
stand up. It is a ritual. In our religion whenever we see our elders, we touch
their feet and do à[am (praëäma)
It is also a ritual. Are all these rituals
devoid of any meaning or significance? No. All these rituals are nothing but
the manifestations of the students’ respect to the teacher, the members’
respect to the President, the youngsters’ respect to the elders. In the same
way, whenever we feel grateful to someone, we say “Thank You” to him and shake
hands with him. If we feel extremely grateful, we may even press his/her hands
so much, that it will be painful to them! When we feel happy meeting someone,
we shake hands, hug and embrace . All these acts can be called rituals
manifesting our inner feelings to the individual concerned. The same holds good
even in the case of rituals in religion. We go to temples, perambulate and
prostrate before the idol.We also undertake piligrimages, perform various
havans and pujas etc. Why does one do all those actions?If we dig deeper to
find out, one of the reasonable explanations for those actions would be that we
are only “manifesting” our feelings—we are expressing outwardly, the feeling of respect, love and affection towards
GOD. We get Pooja performed with flowers. Again, another way of manifesting our
gratitude or respects to HIM. We repeat his names 108 times or 1000 times. It
is a ritual manifesting our eagerness to remember HIM always with all respect.
We get AiÉ;ek (abhiSheka )performed. It is a ritual. Again
manifesting our respect to him by offering him all the %pcar (upachaara)that
we would offer to an invited guest at home. The same meaning is there in the
poojas performed at home too. We perform a Homa. What is that? Again, a ritual
manifesting our gratitude or respect in a slightly different way. We believe
that Agni is hVyvahn
(havyavaahana) (one
who carries the food that we offer to other deities) and promptly delivers the
food (Havis) given by us to the proper deity whom we are invoking.
Hence we can conclude that any ritual
performed is nothing but the manifestation of our inner feelings. That is why
Sri Sri Swamiji of Sringeri in his commentary on Viveka Chudamani mentions,
Éi´> mansxmR> tdiÉVyÃk dehVyapar>
àþIÉav>
“bhaktiH maanasadharmaH tadabhivyaïjaka dehavyaapaaraH prahviibhaavaH” (Bhakthi is an intellectual disposition, “prahvi
bhaava” is nothing but an articulation of the body to manifest the feeling of “prahvi
bhaava” or humility ). So, it
connotes that the feeling should arise first and then the rituals follow.
Imagine an individual shaking hands with us, absolutely without any feelings,
or an individual who performs Pranams without any feelings or does worship
without any feeling. We can easily discern the mechanical nature of the ritual,
devoid of the internal feeling. We simply say he is doing it mechanically. What
is the use? Absolutely nothing, except
an exercise for the body!!
The question may arise, “what is the use of a ritual at all”? Isn’t it
is enough if one has only the feelings? No. Man’s nature compels him to find an
outlet for his emotions by doing various “actions” . We find satisfaction in
doing something under its influence. That is Ritual.
There may be rituals or actions which do not require any feelings to be
aroused. But we know that any action done with ïÏa “shraddhaa” or
“faithfully”, is better than one done
without any feeling of ïÏa. Teaching in a
class is a ritual. It can be done in two ways. The teacher prepares well and
delivers in such a way that all the students understand it well. This is the
feeling of Shraddha. It can be delivered just like that without proper
preparation, without bothering himself to know whether the students have
understood or not. The first way of delivering is definitely better than the
second way. A man has to give back the debt to the individual from whom he has
taken the money. This can again be done in two ways. With all reluctance, he
can just give back the money without even a murmur of thanks. It can also be
given back with a pure sense of gratitude, profusely thanking the individual.
The second way is definitely better. It is therefore said that, the intention
behind an action is much more important than the action itself.
As Aldous Huxley puts it, “A well-performed ritual is a work of art by
which even a skeptical spectator will get a kick. It will give an enduring and
lingering satisfaction to both”.
How can we get the intentions or feelings of gratitude, love and respect
aroused? It may not be difficult towards an individual who has helped us, or
one who commands respect by his character itself, or one towards whom we have
natural feeling of affection because he happens to be our kith and kin. But, how
do we get the feelings of respect, love, gratitude aroused towards something
which we can neither see or touch? Or how can we gain that “lingering satisfaction”
or the “kick” that Huxley talks about, when a ritual is well-performed? That is
where the Mantras, the Shlokas, the Sahasranamas come in. When the Mantra
extols the greatness of that Almighty, as one who has created this wonderful
world, or who has given us this body of ours, or one who has provided us with
all the paraphernalia required for our enjoyment, etc, we naturally feel
grateful to HIM and the ritual of Pooja in different forms attains some
meaning. This can happen only when we understand what is being uttered, be it a
Mantra, a Shloka or a Nama. If we do not understand anything, but perform the “act”
only, it becomes a meaningless ritual.
It is to gain that pure feeling of lingering satisfaction, a feeling
bereft of all the negative thoughts, that we MUST understand and be involved in
whatever ritual we perform.
A Pooja is being performed. The Purohit says pa*m! smpRyaim (pädyam
samarpayämi) and asks us to offer two spoonfuls of water,
by pouring that into another vessel. What is this Ritual? pa*m! smpRyaim means, we are offering water for God, to wash his
feet. This concept is the same as what we offer to an esteemed guest coming to
our house. We make him sit on a chair, and wash his feet or offer water to him
to wash his feet himself. That is pa*m!.
When we are performing Pooja we do not have the God in human form, but only as
an idol or a photograph, or a painting or a Saaligrama or Linga. We cannot see
his feet and wash. What should we do? We have to simply imagine HIM in the
human form and imagine washing HIS feet when we offer two spoonfuls of water.
The offering of two spoons into another vessel is purely symbolic, but our
feeling must be complete with the feeling
of washing of his feet. All these are
contained in the two words pa*m! smpRyaim .
By any stretch of imagination, we cannot say that the two Sanskrit words
or an appropriate Mantra or Shloka has the power to take the two spoonfuls of
water to the actual feet of GOD. It is ridiculous!
The words definitely do
not mean just offering of two spoons of water!. In addition
,we can recite a Mantra or
Shloka in praise of the deity and imagine washing HIS feet. The same concept is
there in all the Upacharas. We offer food as nEve*m!
( naivedyam ). What is
that? It is no doubt a ritual, but if done with understanding,
provides a wonderful mental satisfaction of
having offered to God , our choicest
foods . We offer many many
things knowing fully well that God does not consume
them. It is only for OUR
satisfaction that we offer. That is why Pooja is defined as pUjanam sNtae; jnk> kmR smuday>
(püjänäma santoña
janakaù karma samudäyaù)
(pooja is nothing but a bundle of rituals giving pleasure to the
performer).
To day, unfortunately, even the recitation is done by the Purohit and he
does not bother whether the doer listens to them or not and neither is the
“doer” interested in knowing what is being done. But the actions or rituals are
gone through scrupulously. How can we reconcile with such a situation? Should
we believe that whatever we do, abhiSheka, or naivedya, etc etc, will reach the
deity? If it has to reach the deity, then by what power or mechanism? Simply
saying that the power of the Mantra or Shloka preceeding the ritual will take
the materials to the deity is meaningless. Commonsense tells us that this is a
very far-fetched imagination and cannot be a fact. Well, we can certainly
imagine that the Naivedya has reached the Godhead. Nothing wrong, but it can remain
only as an imagination, a pious heart felt feeling. If such a pious feeling has
to be aroused in our hearts, we must understand what we have recited. When we
recite
shö zIrœ;a pué;> (sahasra sheersha purushaH ) and
perform Aavahn
(aavaahana )to the deity,
what is the feeling that should be evoked? It is that, the great pué; (puruSha), who is behind all the heads, feet, eyes and hands in all the
living beings of the
entire universe, and one who is Omnipresent,
and one who
transcends this universe
by a large measure, is being invoked, so that we can feel
his presence in the
symbols in front of us. This is the essence of the Mantra. When
we do the aavahana to any deity with this
Mantra, we only feel that great puruSha
is here, in the symbol that we are
worshipping. The action of offering flowers or
akshata to the Idol, is
symbolic and only to strengthen the feeling that HE is in the
idol. The other Mantras in the pué;sU´ (puruShasUkta) extols the greatness
of that puruSha and when we do each upachaara by
reciting those Mantras, we
feel as if that great puruSha is in
front of us symbolically and is accepting what we
offer. All the actions or rituals for the Upachaaras are just
outlets for our feelings .The Mantras of the pué;sU´ (puruShasUkta) by any stretch of imagination, cannot literally carry
what we offer, and make them reach that puruSha.
After
all, where is HE? HE is every where. For our convenience, for the ease of
meditation and
contemplation, we have many types of
symbols to which we offer
the Upachaaras.
Such a pious imaginative feeling, can be had only when WE recite the
Mantra and understand it too. What kind of feeling will be aroused when the purohit
recites the Mantra audibly or inaudibly and we perform only the ACT? It will be
just a futile exercise and a waste of water, or Kumkum or flowers.
When this is the case
about Mantras, we can imagine the fate of Shlokas or Sahasranamas. The familiar
Shloka during àdi][a (pradakShiNaa)
is a classic example. We say
papae=hm! papkmaRhm! papaTma papsMÉv>
Çaih
mam! zr[agt vTsl
(paapo.aham paapakarmaaham paapaatmaa
paapasambhavaH traahi maam kripayaa deva sharaNaagata vatsala)
(I have committed many sins. I am born as a sinner because of sins
committed. Oh God! The protector of people who surrender to you, kindly protect
me).
It is a heartfelt feeling
of surrender. When we understand the Shloka, such a feeling is aroused. Doing a
àdi][a is an action to give an outlet to that feeling of
surrender. The feeling of surrender can come only when we understand the
meaning, otherwise the
tongue repeats the words, the body rotates through 360°
and falls down flat.
Surrendering to HIM is a very fine feeling, which must arise in
the heart and nothing to
do with the body. Such a feeling cannot come by
repeating some
unintelligible words and falling flat on the ground.
In the Lalitha shö nam (sahasra naama), we say
jNm m&Tyuu
jra tÝ jn ivïaiNt daiynI
(janma
mR^ityu jaraa tapta jana vishraanti daayinii)
(You(Lalitha) grant peace
to those, who are struggling with the triple sufferings of
Birth, Death and Old age).
How can this happen? If one contemplates
on that Upanishadic äü,(brahma) whom we are worshipping symbolically as
Lalitha, we get rid of that suffering of birth, death and old age. That means,
the name should
arouse in us the feeling that SHE is the all
encompassing deity in the universe and we should immerse ourselves in HER
contemplation. Such a contemplation can
bring us peace. Let us not imagine that SHE is
sitting there with a bowl of peace to offer to us, as soon as we recite the
words in the nam (naama) !!! And offer Kunkum or flowers.
There is a practice of doing Ramayana Parayana or Gita Parayana which
are supposed to be meritorious rituals. Ramayana is a piece of wonderful
literature and the Slokas are meant to understand and enjoy. We must become one
with Rama or Lakshmana or Bharata or any other character in the kaavya. How can
we expect any benefit from repeating the words in a Shloka (Maybe sometimes
incorrectly too!!) without understanding anything?. Then, they will be as good
or as bad as any other word. For example, in the beginning itself, Valmiki is
asking Narada to name a man in this world who possesses certain qualities like
xmR
k«t}ta sTyvaKyt †FìtTv sTcirÇ
(dharma kR^itaGYataa satyavaakyata dR^iaDhavratatva
satcharitra)
These qualities form the very foundation of our
culture. If one goes on repeating
those
Shlokas 100 or even 1000 times, what we can expect to happen? It is as
good or as
bad as repeating the letters in the Sanskrit Alphabet 1000 times!!.
When Rama
says, with all love towards Bharata
n
sveR æatrStata ÉviNt Értaepma> (na
sarve bhraatarastaataa bhavanti bharatopamaaH)
(Not all brothers are like Bharata).
Should we not be able to join with Rama in his love for Bharata?
When Rama
is standing alone for the battle in jnSwan (janasthaana ), in front of
fourteen
thousand cruel demons, Valmiki describes the scene in a poignant
manner as an
exclamation from the Devas assembled there.
ctudRz shöai[ r]sam! ÉImkmR[am!
@kae ramí
xmaRTma kwm! yuÏm! Éiv:yit
(chaturdasha sahasraaNi raxasaam bhiimakarmaNaam
eko
raamashca dharmaatmaa katham yuddham bhaviShyati? )
(There is the dharmaatma Rama, standing alone in front of 14000 cruel demons that are there. What kind
of battle is this? )
It seems when Kulashekara,
the Raja of Travancore heard this Shloka rendered by
a lecturer, he had been so
immersed in the story, that he asked his
minister to get the army ready to go to jnSwan to help Rama!. Kulashekara was “with” Rama
at that moment and truly
experienced every moment of what Rama was up
against. This is the kind
of feeling aroused and should be aroused in a genuine
reader of the Ramayana. If
one does not understand, how can he get that feeling
at all? What other benefit
can possibly be there by repeating that Shloka 100 times in a paray[ (paarayaNa) .The same holds good for Bhagavad-Gita too. It is full of philosophical concepts only to
be understood and practiced in life. What kind of
benefit can we expect by repeating those Shlokas alone , without
understanding them?
Such a paray[ is a meaningless ritual.
Let us not be under the illusion that they are all Sanskrit words and
just a repetition of those words will bring all benefits to us. Then, why such
monumental treatises like Vedas, Ramayana, Bhagavata, Bhagavatgeeta etc? If we go on repeating the letters in Sanskrit
Alphabet with all their “maatraas “, some 1000 times a day, by permutation and
combination they are bound to become as many Slokas in Ramayana or Geeta.
paray[ by itself is not wrong. But if it has to be really useful, one should
understand the full meaning of what one
is reciting.
It is only then that our rituals really become meaningful.
There is another aspect of the rituals which we should consider. We have
already said that they help to strengthen the feelings aroused in an
individual, feelings of gratitude, love, respect and faith . They help the
individual to concentrate better on whatever we are trying to contemplate. For
eg, let us say we would like to concentrate on Lord Shiva, as described in the
Mantras or shlokas. The mind, no doubt, tries sincerely to concentrate on the
meaning of the Mantras and thereby to contemplate on Shiva. But, what about the
other senses? The eyes will be seeing something outside, the ears will try to
hear outside sounds, the nose gets distracted by some sweet or bad smell, the
hands will not keep quiet, the knees and knee joints complain of pain, the
sultry weather in a place like Chennai makes the body feel miserable, because
of constant perspiration. Thus, all the senses try to distract the mind away
from what it is trying to contemplate. Unfortunately, as the Upanishad puts it,
that is their nature.
pra|ic oain Vyt&[t! SvyMÉU> tSmat! prakœ
pZyit naNtraTmn!
(paraa~nachi khaani vyatR^iNat
swayambhUH tasmaat paraak pashyati
naantaraatman)
(Brahma the creator, created the senses only to look “outwards”. That is
how, they never turn “inwards”). That is what we find in the lalitaa sahasranasma
also
ANtmuRo
smaraXya bihmuRo suÊlRÉa
( antarmukha samaaradhyaa
bahirmukha sudurlabhaa )
(SHE is easily propitiated
by those who have all their senses pointing “inwards”,
but very difficult for those
whose senses are always directed “outwards”).
Hence, it is very necessary for constant
contemplation (dhyaana), to have all the
senses to be ONE with the
mind. Even if this is not possible, we must atleast see
that the senses co-operate
in the process with the mind, by making them do things
that are complementary to the feelings aroused by
the mantras. That is where the
“rituals” help.
For eg: If one sits to
perform a puja of a shiva linga, he has an icon of Shiva in
front of him.The
contemplation is to be of Shiva in the linga.The eyes will be
looking at the linga and enjoying its splendour and
beauty. The ears will be
listening to the Mantras recited by the individual or others.
The nose will be busy
in inhaling the sweet
fragrance of the flowers made ready for the Puja. The tongue
will be busy in reciting
the Mantras or stotras.The hands will be engaged in
performing Abhisheka or
Puja. The body has to sit in a particular posture
convenient, but with all
due respect to the individual. Thus, all the outward senses
will be engaged in acts
complementary to the act of contemplation. With this kind
of co-operation of the
senses, the experience of contemplation is 100%.The same
thing holds good in
performing a homa too. The eyes will be directly seeing the resplendent Fire
God, the symbol of prmaTma (paramaatmaa) , the
ears will be listening to he mantras; the nose inhaling the fragrance of the haem xUm (homa dhUma)the
hands engaged in the act of “homa”
itself. And thus, the pleasure of
contemplating the deity
will be complete.
A day-to-day mundane analogy will not be out of place here. Forty or
fifty years ago, when TV wasn’t there, we used to hear the radio commentary of
the cricket matches being played in
Swa[urym!
Éarhar> iklaÉUt! AxITy vedan! nivjanait y> AwRm!
(sthaaNurayam
bhaarahaaraH kilaabhUt adhiitya vedaan navijaanaati yaH artham)
(He who has studied the Vedas but
does not know the meaning, is indeed, a stone pillar meant for supporting a
heavy load).
If one does not know the meaning of what one recites, the mind refuses
to dwell on the deity whose qualities, the Mantra is expected to extol. Let us
not be under the dangerous illusion that the deity to whom we are performing
the puja will be more than satisfied by our external, mechanical acts!!
One may ask the question, whether contemplation or meditation is not
possible without the external acts. Yes, it is possible. But only when our mind
is completely free from all kinds of external forces and pressures and free
from the normal maladies of humans like greed, envy, anger, hatred, avariciousness,
fear etc. We may , no doubt, sit in a closed room, with closed eyes, sit in a
particular posture, giving no room to our external senses to grab something
from outside. But this denial is a forced one and the senses become restless.
Moreover, the mind being what it is, cannot remain concentrated on any thing unless,
there is a concrete object. It flies from place to place. Even the repetition
of a mantra may not be able to harness it because it does not know on what to
concentrate. Should it be on the letters? Should it be on the image envisaged
by the shlokas? Wthout an image or some symbol, in front of us, the sight of
which is carried by the eyes to the mind, it is very difficult for the mind to
envisage an image and concentrate on it too. Should we concentrate on the
meaning of the mantra? Yes, it can do it- once, twice or thrice. Then the mind
gets bored and jumps elsewhere. It is here, that the rituals help the mind.
They are there to strengthen the feelings aroused in the mind and the latter
can go on thinking about it with the different rituals keeping the mind fresh.
All the ritualistic processes are
meant for those simple masses who are still getting initiated into the
intricacies of spiritualism, so that it helps in contemplation of our creator
and aids us in developing a gratitude towards HIM and by contemplating more, we
one fine day can hope to rid ourselves of the “thamogunas” (the negative
qualities like greed,jealousy,anger etc etc) and cleanse our mind.
There definitely were and are there now, the great souls who are able to
concentrate and have achieved much without the help of rituals. Let us pay our
respects to them.