Forsaken Gods....

India, is undeniably a country which has reared on its spiritual beliefs and customs that go back as long as our history does. It is absolutely futile to even debate the power that a faith and the uniformity of its rituals have over the process of uniting a people. Rituals which were probably created to bind the people under the thread of that faith forever and without question. Every single religion expects its disciples to follow its sacraments tenaciously and sincerely.

BUT.......I have my questions!!

Are we meant to follow these rituals and practices mindlessly? Has adherence to these sacraments become the paramount benchmark and indication of one's devotion to the supreme being....to his GOD, in whichever form he may exist? And more importantly....have we only retained the habit of performing these rites and have lost the meaning and the purpose of their existence a long time back?

These pictures were taken at a recent cleanup drive for River Yamuna in Delhi. The sacred river, famously held in reverence by every hindu in the country now suffers greatly and resembles nothing but a ribbon of sewage water strewn with industrial dump and garbage spawned from modern conviniences.


Everyone expected the river bed to be full of plastic and industrial waste. So it was, but there was another form of waste (am i allowed to call it that?) that presented the cleaners with a dilemma they could not cure. Idols of our gods lay rotting in the riverbed in numbers that could choke the river and once quarried from their putrid resting place, they were put together on a clean platform with the same (if not more!) reverence with which they were thrown in the river, untill the dilemma could be solved about their treatment.

This is the place where i began to wonder....what kind of brownie points are we going to score in front of our gods by putting them at such places? Are we moving anywhere closer to the happiness in our mortal lives by just observing the famous hindu ritual of surrendering their form in a water body?

It is same to assume that these figurines made of clay and (toxic)paint are quite litreally the symbols of our diverse faith and once placed on the pedestal of reverence with two garlands become the form of god himself. I cannot figure out how do we expect any blessings from them by keeping them at a place we wouldn't like for ourselves??

Now, i dare to ask the question...."Are some of our rituals and rites getting outdated in the current scenario?"

The answer is pretty simple....all rules, rites and sacraments have constantly been evolving over time. We have gone past an age when various atrocities were condoned in the name of religion. Whether it was burning women alive in the name of witchcraft or sati or demolishing shrines and temples. The world is still experiencing this ignorant fanaticism in more ways than one.

Let me come back to the original discussion again. My immediate point here does not relate to ecology, to saving rivers and enviornment or to the authenticity of religious practices. Its about small individual changes that will snowball into a bigger social change. Every big effort is a combination of smaller ones that come together to make a difference big enough to notice.

Maybe its time for us to atleast think once before allowing ourselves to follow any of the practices that, supposedly, the religion prescribes (It may well be the greedy henchmen masquerading as its preacher or protector).

Rather than blindly submitting to the so called traditions, ask yourself if 'These practices are moral or righteous in the current times?'. These henchmen have- very daftly, over a long period of time- given their personal interests (financial or otherwise) a shape of religious devotion or roughly translated....rituals!!

Take a small example - It is said that sipping a handful of water from Ganga or Yamuna would atone all your sins....but would you stand at one of these places where the yamuna flows through the city and try to cleanse your soul of all the sins?? Think!!

A prayer comes from the heart, not by merely joining your hands. I just think its about time that we start thinking more about our ecology, enviornment and humane values than to follow some rites and rituals, most of which (in my personal opinion) are redundant and even detrimental to our dwindling natural resources.

THE CHOICE AND DISCRETION IS ALWAYS YOURS TO EXCERCISE!!

(Please feel free to post any of your opinions or to forward the matter further to anyone you wish)