On traditions and rituals

….contd…..

Today, I’ll explain the benefits of ‘moggu’ - a traditional drawing made with rice flour in front of the house early in the morning.

What are the reasons and benefits for following this tradition?

1.  Physical benefit : We have to squat or kneel down to draw ‘moggu’ (as in telugu) or ‘kollam’ (as it is called in tamil).  This is the ‘asana’ recommended by ‘yoga’ to cleanse our system and this is automatically done while doing this ‘ritual’.

But, this benefit is lost when a servant does this job or we paste a plastic one in front of our house. (And we take pride saying we follow the tradition even when a servant does it or we paste a plastic sheet! Funny!)

2.  Psychological benefit: It’s proven fact that the entire day’s mental state depends on the state of our mind in the first half-an-hour to an hour.  So, what you do then decides your day’s quality.  Now, when we draw this ‘moggu’ we need to concentrate.  That’s the first benefit.  We automatically are meditating and silencing the mind or training the mind to be peaceful and are giving it a start of ‘being in the moment’ for the day.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever.  Once, we complete drawing ‘kollam’ when we look at it, it’s beauty and the fact that ‘we’ have done it gives us a emotional satisfaction and happiness and that state of mind is very good way of starting a day.

Again this benefit is lost when we assign it to a servant maid.

3.  Social benefit: Now, we have come to realize that ‘no man is an island’.  That means man can’t survive on this planet on his own.  Even his survival is dependent on the relation he has with the ecology.  ‘green corps’, ‘friends of snakes’, ‘blue cross’ and such organizations were started with this motto.  But, ecological balance rests on the small insects too! And the ‘moggu’ that we draw is with the ‘rice flour’, which becomes the food for the ants and such insects in the mud and thereby their survival in turn sees to it that the balance is maintained. 

It also means we understand that we owe them our ‘survival’ and hence out of gratitude are repaying them their due.  It’s a classic way of living a ‘symbiotic’ relationship. 

4.  Spiritual benefit : We are starting our day with gratitude to the insects and other micro-organisms which are useful in maintaining the ecological balance.  What can better this start?

We are happy emotionally and physically fit with this simple act. Can we ask for more?

It reminds us of the social responsibility and makes us more responsible towards our society and environment automatically.  Do we need a ‘hole in ozone layer’ and ‘green house effect’ to wake up to this call?

There are few more benefits which I must have left out for sure!

…contd…