Hindu customs, culture and god. All these have always been responded in different ways by the various generations of hindus themselves, let alone the world. So, today I just want to share my thoughts on them. Well, people have always mentioned that there was a time when people believed in customs blindly and they used to follow them without any questioning of 'why'. So those yesteryear people were branded as ignorant. Well, Today most of us indians question 'why',..and well that is very good!!. However when we do not find any logical reasoning limited to our limited understanding and knowledge, we discard the same as superstition and blind belief. No doubt many customs have been laid with extra covers of fear and superstition, yet, is it not less of a fact that those customs existed from times unknown.... that we now discard them just because the reasoning we get or probably we assume as per our understanding is not worthy. Then, Is this not ignorance!! the existence of any thing, living, nonliving or even a happening needs to be questioned. Such query needs to be answered fully but must never die out and such queries do have solid answers.
why do Indian gods have an image. OK, even if they do why do they look supernormal... with more eyes, heads, hands. why do some gods have heads other than human, like the elephant, monkey or the lion?. Why does each god have a specific animal ride?
Well, sounds interesting but unrealistic? here lies my question now....what is real and what is unreal. Is this human body and the world itself really real. ?
If what we earthlings see and visualise within the the realms of the earth's atmosphere is real, then our imagination can never go beyond this limited reality. We imagine aliens as having some funny body shapes, having multiple heads or hands or ...... and we definitely believe they must be more powerful than us as our movies show them with huge heads. We unknowingly consider them super human with better advanced technologies and living adaptations. however, we actually do not know their real identity...... Hold on, I am nowhere trying to say that there is a connection between hindu gods and our imaginative neighbours from the universe.
What I am trying to say is that man can only believe what he has witnessed on this earth, be it visual, audio, smell, touch or feel. These are the five senses any earthling is armoured with. These are what make our living more easy to understand and accept. If Improperly used without reasoning these same senses can make our life ignorant too.
At this point I would like to talk about our own imagination created superheroes, their superpowers and them being an inspiration to many kids. Is all this real real?! what is inspiration and what is a belief. Do we need to be inspired to believe in ourself?.... yes, it works for all of us.
At this point I would like to share this link here
http://www.ishafoundation.org/blog/lifestyle/indian-culture/?ref=footerrel&pos=1
So back to our questioning.......why do we wear a bindi, why vermillion on the head, why do we light incense, why do we do arati in front of god, what is naivedyam/nivedana to god. why are females restricted to go to temple during periods...why is a coconut so sacred for us. why are animals worshiped.... why and why.... there are so many ?????. Before we try to answer these questions... we need to understand them and we need to understand the origin of all these practices. None of them have sprouted overnight without reason. I may be missing out many more practices.... but I will surely try to reason out the ones I have questioned in my life and will share them in my post.
please refer to my post on ' bindi' dated 4/8/2010 (mm/dd/yyyy)where the significance of vermillion on head has been discussed.
Please refer to my post on 'Idolatry' 11/13/2011(mm/dd/yyyy) where I have put forth the understandings of idols and their worship. we all believe that there is a force that is more powerful than the human intentions and actions that guides us, helps us or even can rage on us. Man can never win over the wits of time and nature. So, this force is the nature that surrounds us on earth and in the universe and that which is still a mystery to be understood. We talk of the big bang theory... what/who created it. Is it the nature or some power that some address as God?. So here we have something or someone unseen or unknown doing things like hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes etc out of the human control. So, we label it either as nature or address it more respectably as God. Now we conclude that god is the most powerful... is everywhere, can see and do almost everything or anything good or bad when he is furious. So to explain the ignorant few people who would otherwise become unruly.... who could otherwise find it difficult to concentrate and meditate on the powerful force guiding our life , man must have come up with the idea of idols.Please refer to my post on 'Idolatry' 11/13/2011(mm/dd/yyyy)
Now The idol has been given, but how do we differentiate it from the normal man and make it superior,for the understanding of people that; this particular idol represents god. The many eyes of the god signify his onlooking of many things. the many heads signify superiority in intelligence. the many hands signify immense strength and having the virtue of doing many things and being more capable. we have gods specific for wealth, studies, medicine, food.... basically, only to make man know the importance of each particular entity in life and give respect to them. we have always been told that wasting food will annoy our deity , Annapurna devi and we may be punished by her. This was mainly to bring discipline to life so that all the sections of people lived in harmony. This was only to make life smoother to live in.
Man shares only a part in this nature and he is definitely not superior to the other creation in life . The animal heads merely make the animals more respectable so that they are not considered inferior to man.
However, Hindu culture and existence works very well and the very same way without Idols and idol worship and even without religion. Have we ever thought of what and why the religion came up for. Probably, as per my understanding from the various experiences in life, religion is merely a school of thought to discipline the society, that could otherwise be baffled about what is right and wrong. Religion is a mere guidance. Hinduism tolerates all cultures and religions because they are not different from each other and because true hinduism believes that different cultures, customs and religions are methods of organising people. At this point I would like to share the beautiful thoughts of the well known Sadhguru
http://sadhguru.org/atoz/c/culture/
Why are females not allowed in temples during menses. In our homes a female during menses is asked to occupy a small section of a room where she spends the four days of heavy bleeding. Why ..is this an orthodox, unreasonable or a discriminating act?. NO, definitely there is much reasoning, science and a positive aspect. This custom has been existing from times unknown. In the earlier days when sanitary methods were still under-developed, females used to use cloth in place of sanitary napkins to serve the purpose. The conditions demanded more cleaning measures and were less hygienic. Also, we all know that during those days females would be weaker and need more rest. So, females were restricted so that they would work less, be more at rest and this also served in maintaining the hygiene of one and the entire house.
Blood is the flowing energy in our body... loss of blood by any means is a disturbance in our energy field. Temples are fields of high energy (please refer the post on Idolatry) So when an individual with a disturbed energy field enters the high energy field, it probably could produce sudden change in the energy levels of the body that might not be able to be borne/tolerated by the individual, causing further weakness.
why do we light a lamp in our house , why do we light incense, what is aarti, what is naivedyam.
Hindu culture when read carefully is full of acts that represent/signify something more close to spirituality than religion. A lamp is a positive energy that keeps darkness at bay, let the darkness be more physical or more in terms of human intentions. Darkness brings fear. Light brings hope, energy, strength and confidence. Burning of the incense made of natural fragrances like sandal, jasmine.... would emanate a serene fragrance to make the mind and body more pleasant and serene.... more close to spiritualism. Burning of the incense has a significance, if we can look at it in another way. As the incense stick burns... it gives away an ascending smoke that emanates beautiful fragrance. Human life as it ages....or burns in the fire of life...must give away the material wishes, desires and attachments as one ascends towards reality and at the same time leave a beautiful fragrance/memory behind that would become an example for others to follow and remember.
There are some customs that ask for offerings in the form of animal sacrifices.... man has understood the superficial meaning and is sacrificing the animals... but actually the inner meaning asks for the sacrifice of the raw and cruel nature of a particular animal that exists in every human being. sacrificing a goat or sheep... is in essence sacrificing the arrogance and thoughtless actions that exist in man's nature. goat and sheep...particularly the ram are taken as examples of arrogance.
Camphor is used to burn as aarti in front of god. It signifies the burning away of our ego in front of the supreme power and merge as one into it (as the smoke from the burning aarti/camphor or even the incense merges into the atmosphere)
coconut tree is the only tree which grows by sowing the coconut itself,which is not same with the other trees. The coconut is a significance of prosperity and growth and is thus, considered holy. Naivedyam is a procedure where fruits and flowers and various dishes are offered to god... in the presence of a burning lamp. Incense is burned and Aarti is given at the time of offer. The offerings signify our fruits of life(children, family, attachments), our favourite items (dishes, our wishes and desires) and attachments, gains, losses. In the essence naivedyam is a means of offering the entire self to the nature(god). It is just merging of a part of nature into nature that is eternal and supreme and the only. giving away children, family etc does not mean giving away the people in a physical and superficial sense, but it has an inherent depth in that.... family, children, our desires, belongings that man assumes to be his possessions and are difficult to let go are actually bondages,. Man, his attachments and belongings are all nature, not different from each other. once we accept this reality that all that one sees is physical and mortal and the real immortal is nature and we are all one with it... the acts of gaining or giving really hold no sense nor any meaning.
understanding of death.... merging of the elemental and material body into the soil and air and merging of the energy/divinity within into the energy of the universe.
Finally what I have learnt from hindu culture, god, customs and religion (for me all hold the same) is that God is the nature and its power within and around us. What we do in life is guided by our elders and their created culture, religion and customs and this is just a journey/path to understand life/reality. This reality is nothing but dwelling in harmony with our nature as a part of it and finally (death) merging as one into it.
Life is the biggest teacher a man has and will always have.. everything in life is symbolic with open answers. The only trick is to decipher the positive and apt meaning out of it.
