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Tuesday, May 20, 2008

To follow rituals or not to follow?

Religion comes with rituals, or does it? Many of my friends told me, religion is very confusing, we have to follow a certain ritual if not God will be displeased and may even punish you. So why start the hassle, we do not want to burden ourselves with going to the church every sunday, going to temples every wednesday etc.. We do not want to burn incense in the house, we don't want to be vegetarian every other day. It is too bothersome. Here, we take the above as forms of rituals.

Do we really have to follow rituals to be considered religious?
Let us consider again, does going to a temple everyday makes someone more religious? I know it is a very controversial question. However, i take the challenge to answer it. I feel that intention and love is of outmost importance and rituals to me are not THAT necessary after a certain time.

There are two groups of people.

1) One group employs elaborate rituals and its members assert that unless these procedures are rigorously followed, God would be displeased with the worship.**
2) The other group does not seem to bother at all about procedures. Its members behave in strange ways; they talk to You, sing to You and dance for You. In many ways they appear crazy and abnormal.

** God will not feel angry or displease at his own child whom he love so much. If God is so petty, how can he be called the ALL-MERCIFUL, ALL-COMPASSIONATE, ALL-LOVING GOD.

I am sure many of you would not think that the second group exist at all. But let me tell you, they do, just that in much much less proportion in comparison to group 1.

Lord Krishna says in the Gita, " 'There are basically two approaches to worship, the external approach and the internal approach. The external approach relies heavily on procedures while the internal approach does not bother about procedures. Both approaches are acceptable, provided Love is the basis."

The role of ritual is like a rituals are a stepping stone. They are like the floatation aids used by those learning to swim. Once they know how to swim, the floatation aids are thrown away.

In the same manner, rituals are supposed to get people started on the path of worship; later, when love for God develops in full measure, rituals could be given up.

I admit that I WAS a skeptic of rituals myself. However, i feel that without the start of rituals, it would not trigger the push to learn about divinity and religion. So yes, ritual has its importance to some extend.

Here i would like to talk abit on idol worship. An idol of the lord is just like the flag of a country. Why does a country needs a flag? A flag represents a country. In our limit-bound body, we need a pointing finger to remind ourselves the existence of God. When one realizes that divinity is within ourselves and that we see everything as manifestation of God, do we still need idol? A true Yogi sees God's manifestation in the manificent of the mountains, the beauty of the waterfall, the peacefulness of light rain etc.. then, there is no need for idol worship, for a portion of God's splendor and glory can be seen in our eyes.

If we can see all as God's manifestation, do we still need rituals to remind ourselves of his existence?

LINYX posted at Tuesday, May 20, 2008
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