On traditions and rituals

…contd….

Next part of the question  : Can you want to take up a new ritual?

The answer is ‘yes’ and ‘no.

Yes because every tradition was started by someone sometime for a specific reason.

For eg:

1.              our grandmothers and even most of our mothers wear only sarees.  But are we not wearing ‘shalwar kameez’ and such outfits?  Did we not start a tradition that didn’t exist in our families?

2.              Women cut their hair only to denote a fact that something inauspicious has happened in their lives. But now it’s become a norm.

3.              Use of modern gadgets in kitchen, dress code, food habits everything has undergone a change.

Now, the question is not whether we can take up a new ritual. The question should be why do we need to take up a new ritual?  In the examples that I have given, our daily wear and gadgets that we use in kitchen are to ease our lives and to make our life comfortable.  So, we included all these in our lives. 

Most of our traditional rituals had reasons because of which they were to become part of our daily routine.  Our seers saw to it that every ritual should have benefit that betters our physical well-being, emotional and psychological well-being, social and inter-personal benefits, financial benefit and not to forget the spiritual benefit.  Go to post dated Nov 6^th 2012 where I have already given these explanations with regards to the ‘Dassera’ / ‘Golu’.

….contd…..