In the olden times there were too many threats towards
the very existence and survival of being-
threats to life- wild life, snakes, reptiles; internecine tribal rivalry for
control, natural calamities- fire; water ,lightening, cloud burst. The nature
was a complete mystery. All these life threatening forces found place in our “to
be worshipped Gods”. Snakes and scorpions (in jungle bordering tribal habitats),
water God (in most of hilly area prone to flash floods) and so man identified
God with the life saviour force that was needed to counter an evil force. So we had the Sun God, wind God ultimately
leading to huge numbers of Gods. In fact we had a god for everything and prayed
before the likely commencement of threat (water God prior to rains) and post
threat termination to thank him and bestow favours on him. The bells, conchs,
divas, in mandirs; fragrance sticks, flowers, fruits, prayers, singing bhajans
as community in the mornings and evening were all aimed at addressing the fear
factor and pleasing the Gods with whatever was precious at that point
of time (today Sirdi and Tirupati are offered jewellery, gold and cash- principally
nothing has changed) and the bargain was safety and well being. Whenever the God
failed we found an excuse that the God had been displeased by some act and this was the causative of all superstitions.
The mankind has always bargained
with the fear factor behind a mystery by invoking another unknown force till a
counter has been found and then dumping him. The science and medicines have
combined to resolve lots of these threats so time to dump some Gods- that is the
way we have evolved. This must not be ridiculed as this was the prime defence mechanism
to our very survival.
As mankind evolved some
mysteries got demystified and we could protect ourselves against this threat
due to enhancement in medicare and so we dumped some of the Gods or the rituals
born out of fear of the unknown. But one would find even today. In Himachal
people pray to rain god prior and post rains and blame external factor for any mishap as God ( last bastion) has to be protected. Some might find it ridiculous but the fact is as the bridges are getting laid this god is heading towards extinction.
Today the world over
there is a tendency to move away from the rituals and superstitions.
There are two reasons for this.
First the teaching of
science has trained our minds to look at things logically and experimentally. This leads at times to arrogance of limited knowledge trying to answer those
mysteries which have yet to be discovered. The religions have failed to keep pace leading
to some so called truths as propagated by the books having proven wrong or rebelling
against the research or not modifying the life style as required by the modern
day society.
Second is inability of
our religious custodians to interpret and transform the wisdom in the present
context. In the olden days they Rishi and munis who were very learned guided
the kings and rulers whenever there was a moral dilemma. Proper knowledge of epics
was a time consuming process and generally undertaken in the ashrams patronised
by the monarchy. Thus the guardians of the religion they were forced to fend for
survival. So do not blame them.
But on the positive
side there is a nice backlash where some very learned people are using the
modern day tools and explaining the rationale for a way, which is more
acceptable to the modern mind.
Some of the rituals and superstitions are being shed or outsourced to the subject experts- very much with the modern concept of
pay and let the best man do the job. Religious
teachers continue to fulfil a felt need of society. The home based offerings of
flowers, incense sticks, fruits, dry fruits, sweets and cash and superstition of warding off ills by feeding the cows, black dons,
beggars, oil offerings on Saturday, no hair cut on Tuesday, peeple pooja; bath in the Ganga on kumbh, the black cat crossing the road etc. continue even today.
Not bad if others are not impacted and gives some one positive vibes and mental
peace; in fact feeding animals and beggars may be termed as a very crude form
of charity. The current generation
finds these as not very great so they adhere to it for parents or society’s
sentiments
If God is being used by
mankind to serve its own purpose from times immemorial why should the future generations
follow the redundancies? Has the time come to move beyond the rituals to a
higher plan of God utility where the God is worshipped for something higher
than survival or threat neutralisation? Yes, I firmly believe we are standing
at that point of time in history.
We need to move towards
spirituality. This basically means moving from rituals, dogmas, superstitions
and fears. The basics of all religions are same that is, there is a power
controlling, love, compassion, work honestly, help the poor, you are endowed
with mind and freewill, you are the creator of destiny and will reap what you
sow, control your mind, thought and deeds, anger jealousy, be kind to all kinds
of life and explore and experience life and nature and spread peace and
happiness.
This is the way forward
to achieving the elusive goal of happiness, mental peace and journey towards
the higher goals. Time to venture into the discovery of self through the help
of some learned teachers and books on Raj Yoga. The future generations need to
dwell into major mysteries about the soul, spirit and purpose of life.
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