Are you religious or ritualistic? - Where do you think your grey spot stands in the world of black and white

 

Are you religious or ritualistic?

 

“So you are denying your culture when you are sticking to your choices….?”

I could only roll my eyes at my colleague as his inquisitive intrusions broke the silence of my almost perfect,  morning breakfast in the office cafeteria.

Rice idlis with sambar is something I can easily give up the world for. This wouldn’t have been the case a couple of years ago when I used to be an eggs benedict fan, I mused to myself. The debate I had with my friend, instantaneously came to my mind, about the changing dynamics of religion in the 21st century. We both agreed to disagree on a shared notion that we too follow customs which work for us, and overlook those inconveniencing our schedules. Arguing about morals in a world based on fading lines of morality, where there is no black and white. We all struggle to find ourselves.

My journey falls on the lines of self discovery, from being a ritualistic practicing Hindu, to becoming a passionately active vegan. In theory not much seems to have changed, but looking back over the years, the transformation is real. Recognizing my own hypocrisy and finding the courage to correct my own self was a tough journey. What baffled me more was, I learnt, I questioned my own self and checked my own cognitive dissonance in everyday life . Turning towards veganism was more of a conscious decision to lower my share in animal abuse.  More often than not I face the same old questions, “So don’t you miss the food?”, “What made you change your mind?” and “has it actually helped you?”.

Trying to develop a deeper understanding of the religion I learnt the art of patience and compassion. How rituals were designed to integrate a sense of respect for all life forms, and how the essence of faith and worship has been lost in trying to incorporate the rituals into our rat-race schedules.

Many well esteemed scholars of religion and faith studies hold a strong belief of the human race moving towards faith and becoming more religious. We see enthusiasm and vigor in celebrations and ceremonies, but something is amiss. Albeit yes, statistics indicate a rise in religious activities across communities, higher donations in what i call the guilt box (people are guilt tripped into donations as a means to feel better about themselves) and grander celebrations mark auspicious holidays in our calendars. The overall grandness of events have jumped leaps and bounds in luxury and style, missing the essence of the divine teachings to follow simplicity and respect for all. Apparently, social status has taken over gods too. Recalling my last trip to Siddhi Vinayak, where access to darshan lanes was marked with “VIP” labels, so you could skip crowd with a set monetary offering, and offer your prayers faster. Religion has been commercialized heavily, as if bigger offerings and costlier means to send out prayers would help them reverted to faster. Navratri or the nine day fasting rituals which essentially were a cleansing period of clean eating and happy thoughts have been transformed into ethnic sunburn fests of fried foods, bending around the rules of sattvic eating habits.

 We are forgetting the true meaning of prayer which was to send out heartfelt thoughts and gratitude to the respective omnipresent universal power each of us held faith in.

While there have been modifications to rituals for fulfillment of selfish motives at one level or another, some heartening examples of humanity do come to light every now and then. As eco-friendly chocolate ganeshas are dissolved into milk and given away in charity. Khooni majlis of Muharram was recently celebrated by replacing self harm with blood donation camps in many parts of the country. The Khalsa brigade offering help in remote areas in solidarity with humanity is another heartwarming examples of religion dynamics of the many in the 21st century. A large percentage of youth believes in compassionate living and chooses to follow religion in their way, be It with vegan alternatives for Prasad or refusing to follow the age-old customary rituals of animal sacrifice so as to minimize their share in animal suffering. All in all, when it comes to faith and belief systems, the words of Shams of Tabriz (Forty rules of Love, Elif Shaffaq) stands the test of time; “To each his own”.