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.