Are rituals necessary?
Date: 11-Aug-2022
Dear Jeyamohan,
I started my literature journey with your short story collection "Aram". It was a good start. As a novice reader, the stories touched me a lot, especially stories like "Yaanai Doctor" (Elephant Doctor), "Nooru Naarkaaligal" (A Hundred Armchairs) and "Sotrukkanakku" (The Meal tally) disturbed me. Reading turns even an ordinary life into a cherishable one. I am grateful to you for providing me with a great start to my reading.
I am into my early adulthood now. I am into the world's youngest domain - Software. The usual skepticisms of this age are impacting me a lot. There are a lot of questions on religion and rituals, especially in Vaastu and astrology. My family has deep faith in them. I have not got an unbiased responses to my doubts till now. The response is either 'At your age, your doubts are natural. With maturity you will be OK', or 'All these aren't real. People thrust these on us for their business'. Writing to you seeking your advise.
With Regards,
Thiruvengadam, Chennai
Dear Thiruvengadam,
These are the usual doubts and confusions that occurs right from our early adulthood days in our society. Tradition provides you with some concepts and you analyze them through your reasoning and experiences. Neither can you deny them completely because of your under developed reasoning nor can you accept them completely due to your rationality. Therefore you end up in a state in between.
The trouble here is that in this early stages of still evolving experience and the still developing rationality, taking concrete stances is not possible. As life progresses, experiences shatter our stances. That is why we speak atheism in our twenties and do a complete U-turn by becoming a believer in our forties.
Neither of these two extremes are necessary. There is no need to identify yourself as a staunch atheist. But if you do so, then you may not be able to become the direct opposite of believing in superstition if you so wish. The best position at this age would be, "I am categorizing my life temporarily based on my current experience and understanding of my environment and my needs. Let's see what future holds".
Some clarity is needed. Religion is different from rituals and etiquette. They have been compiled within the religion, which gives them some form of a spiritual explanations. But neither were they created nor established by religion.
Religion is a cosmic vision [holistic view] and it is a construct with the philosophical foundations, the symbolism establishing those foundations and the symbolic practices associated with that vision. It propagates within a populace, aggregating all their beliefs, their aspects of life and on a longer period of time becoming a holistic organization.
There is no real worth for these etiquettes and rituals outside of our mind. They aren't tangible forces. Personally, I do not follow any religious etiquettes or rituals. I did not even perform the ancestral rites for my parents, have not constructed my home based on vastu, haven't followed astrology till now. As an Advaitic, I do not need them.
But etiquettes and rituals are mostly evolved from tribal life. There are aspects in them that were developed for practical comforts and also with symbolic significance. They connect us with our ancient past.
What we think of as our thoughts and reasoning pertains to the contemporary, that were obtained via education and external circumstances. Beneath these, our subconscious has been formed through our social environment and language. That subconscious has gradually evolved from our tribal past. Our rational mind doesn't have any control over that subconscious.
Therefore the rituals that we detest due to our rationality becomes necessary during difficult times. Some rituals have close association with our ancient agrarian life. For instance, during the month of Chittirai (first tamil month that occurs during April-May), there is a ritual called "Veedu Niraithal" (literal translation - Filling the House) which involves hanging rice grains and mango leaves in the homes. A beautiful and likeable ritual that connects us with the nature. Such auspicious rituals when performed with the understanding that these are symbolic activities will light up our minds. They give a meaning to our life. Sans these, life will be filled merely with the mundane happenings.
Rituals like ancestral rites have been existing for several thousands of years. Those are also symbolic activities. We cannot escape easily from those symbolics. The father of my cinema friend became quite ill and was bed-ridden as a mere living corpse for a long time. When doctors advised removing the oxygen tubes to relieve him from his suffering, my friend agreed to it due to his rationality. His father passed away.
But later, his father started appearing in his dreams. He became sleepless due to his guilt. He consulted several psychiatrists but in vain. When he spoke to me regarding this, I told him about the "Samasthaabharaadha Pooja" [Ritual for the complete atonement], which is done at the KoodalManikyam Temple in Irinjalakuda and which is performed to express our apologies for all the wrongs that we had committed to those passed away. After performing it, he attained an incredible sense of relief. Such is the potential of symbolism.
Life is something that has to go on through myriads of troubles and hurdles. We are not here to prove anything. We exist to live a healthy, happy and a useful life. If symbolism and symbolic activities can aid in that endeavor, there is nothing wrong in following them. But if you can walk past them naturally, then you need not have to do any of those.
The literate cannot have a blind faith and construct their lives based on these. That is a life of mere faith sans any room for knowledge. On the other hand, explaining everything via simple reasoning is also not a practical possibility.
The believers would explain etiquettes and rituals merely through faith. Rational explanation of these ought to be obtained through our own quest in history and culture. This is not easy because we are required to understand our entire past through this quest.
A singular explanation will not suffice for every ritual. For instance, the functional practice of smearing cow-dung on pooja dais became an etiquette. Cow-dung is a good antiseptic. Drawing rangoli with flour is an aesthetic activity. Waking up to beautiful things on the first day of Chittirai (First month of Tamil calendar) is considered auspicious. Tying Thali (Mangala sutra) during wedding is a symbolic practice, the necessity of which can be justified purely through its benefits.
But care must be taken on etiquette and rituals. Several of these pertain to the time period of old feudal system. Therefore, there may be several aspects in them that are against the concepts of equality and human rights. Rejecting such practices in entirety is essential. If some rituals that are devoid of any negativity gives us confidence and enthusiasm, then accepting and practicing them is not wrong.
Human cannot survive without practical, auspicious, aesthetical or symbolic rituals. Even if we avoid old rituals, we create new ones. How many such modern rituals are we practicing like gifting bouquets, ribbon cutting, unveiling portraits !!
J
Republished - Originally published - 29-Sep-2015
References:
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/17793442
https://champaca.in/products/stories-of-the-true ("Stories of the True" - English translation of "Aram" short stories.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vastu_shastra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_astrology
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_calendar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koodalmanikyam_Temple
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangala_sutra
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