Religion is not only in the rites and rituals, neither in the mind-numbing customs and traditions nor in the superstitions that binds the uneducated to a set of rules that will not allow them to think for themselves.
Religion is not only in the dipping of the body in sacred waters, or drinking that water (however polluted) as a panacea for spiritual ills. It is not striving to die in Varanasi, Kashi, or some other ‘holy’ place and ‘going straight to heaven’.
Religion is not only in the offering of ghee, grains and other tit bits into the ‘holy’ fire so some desire can be fulfilled. Nor is it in the offering of pushpam, phalam and toyam to the gods. Why do we offers to God what He has himself created?
It is not only in the celebrating of Diwali, or Ram Naumi or Krishna Janamashtmi without any meaning or purpose. These are supposed to be reminders that elevate our thoughts towards being more spiritual, not an all-out celebration that is forgotten the next day.
Religion is not the keeping of the ethos or sticking to muhurats, or ridding oneself of grahas. This is so much tomfoolery that has been put in place so those in control can have power over the masses.
It is not a constant fight against black magic – black magic is a mental illness perpetuated by conniving people to keep the already downtrodden in fear.
Much of the above aspects of Hinduism is based on the karama kanda of the Vedas, gleaned from the Rik (Rig), Yajur, Soma and Athharwa Vedas. While these traditional ritualistic components of religion are designed to guide society to self-knowledge, over the centuries their impact has been diluted through absorption of foreign practices, lack of scholarship among the Brahmin classes and lack of interest from a growing educated class in India and in the Indian Diaspora.
The spirit of the rites and rituals are almost dead, just the form remains in many different guises as Hinduism fights to survive in a modern world. The essence of the rites and rituals, if performed with great efficacy, has the power to impact effectively on our lives. If performed without the proper attitude and without upholding the correct nuances, it will have no effect at the least or prove to be harmful at the worst.
Over the years those in control have moulded us to believe that religion is a process only – you do this so many times (108 times is common), or with so many things (generally seven or nine types of one thing), and you will get a particular result. This is trading, not religion. God cannot operate in such a way – He will not be God then but a mere trader, giving you something in return of something you offer.
Some people will have us believe that despite all the wrongs we have done, a donation of a calf as pind daan (offering to the forefathers) is enough to get one’s dead father to heaven (or $200 in US currency will do just as well).
One cannot go to ‘heaven’ holding onto the tail of a calf (the calf is kept by the priest after the ceremony, of course). This way would mean that all those who can afford to pay, will end up in ‘heaven’. It puts to the lie the concept of karma. And what is Hinduism without karma?
Karma has taken on several meanings: it can mean doing good works as per the sacred books; it may mean the bundle of incomplete actions/determinant actions from a previous life which is yet to manifest or is determining the present life (residual karma called prarabadh karma); or the total karma of previous lives (accumulated karma or sanchit karma); or the actual karma we are accumulating presently (Kriyamana karma, the fruits of which will be experienced in the future).
Neither a priest nor any individual can know the latter types of karma and hence cannot promise life in hell or heaven for anyone. Nor can a palm reader or an astrologer, no matter how good, predict your life’s outcome except in very vague terms.
To neutralise the negative effects of the Prarabdha karma it is essential that we perform only positive karma (good karma) in our present life, say our sacred books. The priesthood turn this around and say we should do this by undertaking so many homas (hawans) and other rituals. They conveniently don’t mention that looking after the needy, the disabled and the downtrodden are considered the only good karmas in the sacred books. The homas and hawans are simply purification rites that an individual should take to boost his efforts towards greater spirituality.
No amount of ritual or worship can cut into the prarabadh karma of an individual. Only doing good karma will offset that balance. If anyone tells you otherwise, you are being taken for a ride and not a good ride at that. Good karma is when you do something worthwhile without an eye on the gain or result. It may mean a sacrifice on your part – you will lose something in bargain. If you don’t lose, where is the sacrifice in that?
True charity is the giving of oneself when you know it is needed, not because you can afford to at that time. It may not be your money alone that is involved but your effort and your time also. Most of all, it is a emotional thing, designed to make the receiver feel elevated, not small and useless.
Giving includes ensuring the person at the receiving end does not feel you are doing him a favour. According to Hinduism, charity is narayana seva, service to god through service to man, and the receiver of charity is to be treated as god. The intention behind the charity is more important than the act of charity itself.
All such ‘bunds’ that deal with hows and whys are essentials of Hinduism but are not being taught to us because it does no good to the sustaining or perpetuating the so-called ‘dharma’ as determined by the priesthood. All it leads to is a growing ignorance of our religion, especially as the next generation frankly doesn’t give a damn about the obfuscations of the religion.
Ajnana (Ignorance) and Dukha (Sorrow) cannot be destroyed by rituals and rites. The scriptures state this unequivocally. The ajnana can only be destroyed with the knowledge of the Divine Self (self realisation) and this knowledge, sad to say, in not readily available to us.
For understanding the Divine, mere yearning to know and the study of Vedas are not sufficient. The primary qualification one must acquire is Viveka: discrimination between the transitory and the eternal. The second qualification is renunciation of the desire to enjoy the fruits of one's actions, here and hereafter. This is called Vairagya (Non-Attachment). Non-attachment does not mean giving up hearth and home, spouse and children and taking refuge in forests. It only involves working towards raising your awareness that the world is transitory and, as a consequence of this awareness, discarding the feelings of 'I' and 'mine'.
The above is not something most people in the know will tell us, simply because the whole of so-called Hinduism is geared towards perpetuating society through the four varnas (caste system) and four stages of life: Brahmacharya, Grihastashram, Vaanprast ashram and Sanyas.
Vivek and vairagya, under the ‘cultural’ aspect of Hinduism, is put out as an element of sanyas, to be done when one is in his seventies and already in his vaanprasth ashram. Most people are dead or senile by then but the society has achieved what it set out to do – keep society intact and not have ‘stupid’ ideas like vivek and vairagya as part of our daily worship.
But vivek and vairagya are essential elements of being a Hindu. Every aspect of Hinduism requires each of us to practice vivek in everyday life, and to not seek the fruit of the action by resorting to vairagya (as illustrated so clearly by the Gita). Most people finish off their living without any idea of these two important aspect of Hinduism.
Religion is what a Hindu does when he or she interacts with others in everyday life situations. When a Hindu does a ‘namaste’ you are truly welcoming the other person with all your ten indriyas (five karma indriyas and five jnana indriyas). It is not just an empty gesture like a handshake. It comes with attendant obligations.
A Hindu is told that God resides in all beings, not just human beings. Ahinsa thus becomes an integral part of the Hindu thought – no living being is to be hurt by thought, word or deed. This also applies to not harming any animals, including not eating them.
But in this modern world of instant gratification, even our elders and the priests offer a view to grab God's blessings with meager efforts in lesser time. God and worship must not cut into our busy lifestyles, it seems. Nowadays those getting married ask the priest for the short-cut version of the rites. And the priest obliges, giving rise to the question whether the couple have been ‘properly’ married or not.
Other rites can easily be shortened, the short-cut version proving to be as ‘effective’ as the long-winded one. Religion, it appears, can now be only digested in snippets. Anything more than half an hour and the attention span wonders…. Just like watching an episode of some mythological series.
Just like the quick read of the Ramayana (five dohas) and six bhajans before the mandatory socialising in the mandalis. Or the verse recitals of Chapter 12 of the Gita at funerals. Or the seven mantras the priest recite over and over again at hawans and other pujas.
Our elders, especially those with a religious bent of mind, must ensure we as a people know something more about Hinduism than just the karma kanda section of the Vedas. There are other sections too that need looking into.
The basis of this knowledge for personal development and spiritual upliftment in the Vedas is easy to pass on:
1. There are three chief instruments for uplifting ourselves: intelligence (to be sharpened), mind (to be calmed) and senses (to be controlled).
Hinduism is a very logical religion, based on tested information and verified by practice. Blind faith plays little or no part in it, except when we blindly follow someone else’s practices and thoughts.
This blind faith leads us to be scammed, be taken advantage of and led into mischief by so-called gurus and religious leaders. Only through the practice of discrimination (viveka) of what is right and what is wrong can a practitioner of Hinduism raise himself into the godward path.
The rest is the way of the sheep, designed by unscrupulous people to broadcast their version of what Hinduism is and to garner followers. To follow blindly a path thought out by another, practiced by another is not true Hindusim.
Each practitioner of Hindusim has to find his or her path by concerted effort, un-blinkered thinking and control of oneself. This has been the message of all starting from Vyasa to Shankara to Kabir to Shirdi Sai.
2. Do not let your mind get enslaved by the senses - the mind is to be regulated by the intellect.
Only discrimination (Viveka) through intelligent questioning can lead to this. The incidents of the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Bhagvatha are part of our history. They tell us of exemplary heroes, the woes of wickedness and the triumph of good. Listening to these stories is a sat karma, nothing else. They are designed to motivate us into taking up the godwath path and are not the be-all and end-all of Hindusim.
Once motivated by these itihas, one then embarks on the study of the Upanishads, Aranyaks, the Brahma Sutras and other works by the rishies to understand oneself. The first lesson to learn in this is the control of one’s senses – of the control of lust, anger, greed, attachment and pride. Controlling the sense leads to controlling the mind. Only when a practitioner controls his mind through the control of his senses can he truly start using his intellect, his vivek. Until then, the so-called intelligence is nothing but clever schemes of the mind. For the mind has the ability to create one’s reality, and it can fool you as easily as it can fool others. True intelligence starts with the control of the senses and the mind.
3. Every individual has the right, and the responsibility, of developing the potency of his mind through good practices like meditation, repetition of Lord's Name, devotional singing and worship.
This dhyanam is essential to the mode of vairagya that everyone ought to cultivate. As stated before, vairagya is not the running off into isolation but the separating of oneself from the clamour and cling of the world. You are in the world but remain unaffected by it, undeterred in your effort for truth, right conduct, peace and universal love.
To qualify for the status, one has to undergo a process of bettering oneself. This is a continued assessment of oneself against a set of rules or practices. These practices, called sadhana, includes channelling the mind into ‘positive’ paths, away from stifling emotions of anger, lust, greed, attachment, pride/intoxication and jealously.
The mind then moves in ways that illuminate us. Potent powers called siddhis based on discrimination (viveka) are unleashed. Please note these siddhis are different from paranormal powers that lower rites, rituals and sadhanas can bring about.
* Nalinesh Arun is a former Fiji journalist who lived in India for many years. He is now based in Christchurch, New Zealand