Rituals as learning tools
MURALI A RAGHAVAN
The man who sells a television set does not tell you the intricate scientific principles that make it work.
He simply places a remote in our hands with an instruction booklet. Reading it, even a lay person who has no knowledge of science is able to tame the images, sound, brightness and colour, and switch channels by pressing buttons.
Many of us are not aware of how a mobile telephone functions but we are conversant with basic rituals like dialing a number, scrolling, typing a message – thereby helping us to communicate, send and receive messages.
Pure science abounds in theories, concepts, abstraction and perhaps even speculation. It is technology that reaches science to our doorstep. Technology is the external face, the outward expression of science.
Identical to the above is the relation between spirituality and religion. Religions are outward expressions of spirituality. They have evolved over time and each religion has its own constituency of followers.
Like science, the goal of spirituality is to help efface our problems and improve the quality of our lives. The difference exists in time dimension and vision. While science broadly deals with problems one by one and that which are external in nature, spirituality seeks to strike at the root of all problems that is embedded in our ignorance of the true purpose of life and inability to recognise the true Self.
While applying science to our lives we perform various rituals without questioning how it works because the 'how' has already been taken care of by those who formalised it. The rituals go hand-in-hand whenever technology-based appliances are in use. A religion, too, prescribes rituals which are to be viewed in the light of the above. A religion adapts spirituality and enlists some easy steps for consumption and benefit of people.
If you are inclined to study and learn about science – understand theories and formulae and how things work – and you have the commitment, drive and a sense of urgency and adventure to explore and discover truths, then, you could similarly pursue spirituality, to plumb the depths of metaphysics.
It is irrational to reject or run down any ritual only because we have not understood it. Every ritual has been evolved with a great deal of thought and experience, in order to enhance physical and mental well being that will contribute towards spiritual uplift.
Taking three sips of water called achamanam was intended to boost one's immunity. Touching various parts of body as part of prayer rituals was done to activate, in the process, nerve endings at these places. The various mudras expressed during chanting of mantras or dance are based on the principle of acupressure.
The sitting posture advocated in most kinds of yoga helps keep the spine erect to facilitate free flow of energy. Offering fruits, leaves and flowers during puja symbolizes purity, for the plant kingdom is one of the few life forms that procreates without sexual exchange as we understand it. In this manner, religious rituals mostly do have an underlying meaning and significance that might have been forgotten over time, leaving us with form but bereft of the essence.
All the same, getting struck in rituals life-long is like building new bridges every day and not crossing them.
Religious rituals are usually purification exercises designed to propel one towards refinement. They are not meant to add to the already swollen repertoire of our desires. Once true knowledge is gained, rituals can be abandoned as they would have served their purpose. While science aims to enhance the comfort of human life, spirituality teaches us how to be comfortable with what we have. That is the difference
