E-Paper
Are religious ceremonies important?
Vrinda Aggarwal feels like a religious outcast since she refuses to participate in fasting and other ceremonies. Veena Minocha sorts her confusion.
Vrinda Aggarwal from New Delhi asks:
Dear Veenaji, reading your articles is like a breath of fresh air for me, in this toxic, asphyxiating world of religious overload. I was brought up with too many rituals and ceremonies, and always felt that they were unnecessary, as all that was required for us was to have a direct conversation with our dear God, our best friend, who was always there for me. But when I try to tell this to my family they consider me a religious outcast, as I refuse to participate in any sort of fasting days, or religious ceremonies. How do I deal with them, to convince them of my approach to God, as simple and direct, instead of through complicated procedures which our family pundits insist upon to propitiate one God or another.
Veena Minocha answers:
Dear Vrinda, you have asked a searching question, which most young people like you are facing in the depths of their hearts today. Dear one, I absolutely agree with you that God does not want us to enter into any pundit oriented relationship with him. When He is absolutely available to us, at any time of the day or night, without any off-days or holidays, to listen to us, there is no requirement for a middleman to talk to him.
However, I would also like to explain to you the importance of ‘ceremony’ held in God’s name. whenever we have an occasion to celebrate, like a birthday, an anniversary, or some achievement we have made, we always celebrate it with a party, which is a ceremony in itself. So if there are a few beautiful ‘holy’ days in the year, like the Navratras, Ganesh Chaturthi, Diwali etc. they should be honoured with the appropriate ceremonies. What you see in these ceremonies is the outer glitter and party like occasion made out of it, rather than making it a simple and graciously heart warming connection to God, that it should actually represent. You feel that they have been reduced to a mere ritual, and the true essence of Love, for God, has been forgotten along the way. That is the reason that you find them so asphyxiating and hypocritical. I can only advise you, that instead of being critical of your family for doing so, you can explain how these same rituals can be made so meaningful, that they actually help in receiving shower’s of Blessings from above. God loves ceremony, or He would not have allowed these customs to start in the first place. However ceremony should come straight from the heart, and not through commercial minded middlemen, on whom most people rely, to transmit to-and-fro messages to God’s realm.
When a ceremony is performed with deep love and reverence for God, and in gratitude for all the Blessings the He has showered upon us, then it is accepted graciously by Him, as a worthy offering!
