Rituals - the beneficial activities

All the rituals in Indian culture start with sankalpa that describes when, where, why and what of that ritual. For example we say manmatha naam samvatsare meaning we are performing this ritual in the year with name manmatha. (More information about what is samvatsara can be found here). Then we say bharatakhande meaning we are performing this ritual in the region of bharata, then we say shri parameshwara prityartham meaning we are performing this ritual to please parameshwara and finally we mention actual ritual name for example shri satyanarayana pujanam karishye meaning we are performing satyanarayana puja. The key here is shri parameshwara prityartham which is the main objective of all these rituals – that is to please parameshwara. If parameshwara is pleased then the life becomes livable as it brings all the good things such as health, wealth, stability, knowledge, relations and most important fulfillment of life. All these things are very important for leading happy life. So, one can see that these rituals bring lot of benefits not only for individual but for whole family. If performed in the right spirit, these rituals can bring long lasting benefits not only to the family but to the society as well. One may wonder how society can benefit from the ritual performed by an individual. There is a famous proverb – “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”. The basis of all good things in life is earnings of punya (merit). It is because of punya that one is born healthy or one is born in good family or one is born with good intellect. Not only that, it is because of punya that there can be balance of all these things in life. By performing ritual one earns punya and becomes successful in life, and then when others look at the success of an individual and reason for that success, they are also inspired to perform such punya earning ritual and by doing that they also earn punya and eventually success. That is how individual and society are both benefited.

One of the most important point of these rituals is that these rituals cannot offer their desired benefits unless they reach their true completion. And the ritual cannot reach its true completion unless grihalakshmi i.e. wife of a family person, who is performing ritual, touches her right hand to her husband’s right hand at the end of ritual. Or for that matter every offering that a person makes to god during ritual can be said to be complete only when his wife touches his hand. That indicates what great role women play in the family. It shows that women have to be respected at all the times as without their support family and society cannot prosper.

The three main gods of Indian culture are Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh and their respective consorts namely Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati. Establishing loving relationship with these gods can be greatly beneficial. However, ritual that is performed to please each of these gods is different. Brahma is to be pleased by performing rishi yadnya i.e. by studying religious scriptures. Vishnu is to be pleased by offering him tulasi patras (basil leaves) while chanting his thousand names (Vishnu sahasranaam) during Satyanarayana puja and Shiva is to be pleased by performing abhishek on shivalinga while chanting rudra (rudra namakam and rudra chamakam).

Importance of rituals is diminishing because their benefits are not well understood. It will be greatly beneficial to the society if everybody gets into practice of performing these rituals with devotion. Temples are the places that can play a great role of an educational institution to educate people about these rituals. It is the temple where people can see and learn the rituals and then perform them in their own home. Now one may wonder if temple is already performing rituals, why one again has to perform them in their homes. All these rituals contain steps to chant the suktas from vedas for example purusha sukta, shree sukta, rudra and divine stotras such as vishnusahasranaama, lalitasahasranaama etc. The sound waves that emanate while chanting these suktas and stotras help create positive environment that bring peace and that is why it is important to perform these rituals in individual homes as well. Shrine in home brings peace in home and shrine in temple brings peace in society.

Purer the seed purer the fruit

They say that every action sows the seed which grows into another action which sows the seed that grows in another action and so on. This happens almost every moment. The experience we get at the present moment is the fruit of past action and experience that we will get in the future is the fruit of present action. This period of experience can range from next moment to anytime in the future, or even past current birth. The results of present action remain in the form of seeds and when the appropriate environment is ready for those seeds to ripe, the results manifest in the form of action and experience. Experience can be sour or sweet depending on the purity of action. If the seed is pure the fruit is pure.

One cannot control the experience in the past but definitely the future, by being careful about present action. The senses tend to drag one into impulsive or unthoughtful actions which become cause for sour experiences. These are the tendencies carried over from past births. One may not be able to stop these tendencies abruptly but definitely can direct them so that the seeds sown by actions are pure.

Saints advise to direct senses to their correct purpose. Let eyes see the beautiful form of God. Let head always bend before the feet of Lord. Let the tongue be always engaged in chanting the name of god or narrating the stories of god. Let hands be engaged in worship of Lord. It can take long time to establish such practice, but saints assure that such practice will lead to sweet experiences. And not only that those who follow such practice will leave behind a great legacy that will help next generations.

The day of result

The most important day in the life of university is the day of result. It is this day that determines the future. It is to experience joy of success on this day that we study hard throughout the life of university. Those who make good use of time in university and pass examination with merit, find it easier to succeed in professional life, whereas those who do not pay attention to studies, struggle to survive in professional life.

Human life is like a university. To get into good university one needs good merit. So also it is because of good merit that one gets human birth. After coming to university it is up to individual to make good use of it to progress further. Progress is usually thought of as material progress – that is to earn more and more. Certainly material progress is indeed necessary to succeed in life. But the real progress is much broader than that. Getting into good university is considered as golden opportunity to prepare oneself to fulfill all goals of life. So also human birth is considered as golden opportunity to fulfill the real goal of life and that is moksha. Progressing to achieve moksha is considered as real progress.

Saints caution that it is only in human birth that one gets chance to achieve this goal. It is not in human capacity to understand when and how one gets human birth. So it may be risky to assume that one may again get human birth to pursue this goal. That is why saints advise us to be alert and be focused on the goal of achieving moksha.

One gets this golden opportunity of human life by being born to mother and father. Mother goes through a lot of pain when giving birth to child. Both mother and father sacrifice their interests to provide all necessities for the child. One can repay for these sacrifices only by fulfilling the goal of human birth. Saints advise that it is possible to fulfill this goal by performing bhajan i.e. devotional service to god. 

How to get into devotional service? By establishing discipline of reading or listening to the glories of god or simply offering at least a fruit, a leaf, a flower or even just water to god. It takes hardly few minutes to perform bhajan, but the benefits that one gets by performing it are immense.

All this effort of devotional service is for ensuring that the last day on earth goes sweet.