[Advaita-l] RITUALS - 1 of 2

[Michael Chandra Cohen]

Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice is a classic on the subject. From the
Introduction,

"In the last twenty years a number of diverse fields have found ritual
to be an important focus for new forms of cultural analysis. Besides
anthropologists, sociologists, and historians of religion, there are
sociobiologists, philosophers, and intellectual historians who have
turned to ritual as a "window" on the cultural dynamics by which
people make and remake their worlds."

https://archive.org/details/ritualtheoryritu0000bell

On Mon, Sep 12, 2022 at 1:20 PM S Jayanarayanan via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

>
> https://sanskritdocuments.org/articles/rituals_by_Prof_Srikant_Kumara_Swamy.html
>
> Rituals
> by Prof. Shri R. Srikanta Kumara Swamy
>
> Rituals have been a part of every religion, from the time of the inception
> of the religion and those that exist today. But we often find people
> referring
> to Our Hindu religion as a very "ritualistic religion", i.e. a religion
> consisting of many rituals. The way they are being conducted now, in these
> times
> has made many understand "Ritual" as just an act done or as an act to be
> done with! "It is a ritual to be gone through" is a common refrain. It has
> come
> to mean anything done mechanically without applying our minds to it. Is it
> so bad as all that? What is a ritual after all?
>
> Whenever a teacher comes to the classroom, the students stand up. It is a
> ritual. Whenever the President enters the Parliament House, all the members
> stand up.
> It is a ritual. In our religion whenever we see our elders, we touch their
> feet and do Pranam. It is also a ritual. Are all these rituals devoid of
> any meaning
> or significance? No. All these rituals are nothing but the manifestations
> of the students' respect to the teacher, the members' respect to the
> President,
> the youngsters' respect to the elders. In the same way, whenever we feel
> grateful to someone, we say "Thank You" to him and shake hands with him. If
> we feel
> extremely grateful, we may even press his/her hands so much, that it will
> be painful to them! When we feel happy meeting someone, we shake hands, hug
> and
> embrace . All these acts can be called rituals manifesting our inner
> feelings to the individual concerned. The same holds good even in the case
> of rituals in
> religion. We go to temples, perambulate and prostrate before the idol.We
> also undertake piligrimages, perform various havans and pujas etc. Why does
> one do
> all those actions?If we dig deeper to find out, one of the reasonable
> explanations for those actions would be that we are only "manifesting" our
> feelings.
> We are expressing outwardly, the feeling of respect, love and affection
> towards GOD. We get Pooja performed with flowers. Again, another way of
> manifesting
> our gratitude or respects to HIM. We repeat his names 108 times or 1000
> times. It is a ritual manifesting our eagerness to remember HIM always with
> all
> respect. We get Abhisheka performed. It is a ritual. Again manifesting our
> respect to him by offering him all the Upacharas that we would offer to an
> invited
> guest at home. The same meaning is there in the poojas performed at home
> too. We perform a Homa. What is that? Again, a ritual manifesting our
> gratitude or
> respect in a slightly different way. We believe that Agni is Havyavahana
> (one who carries the food that we offer to other deities) and promptly
> delivers the
> food (Havis) given by us to the proper deity whom we are invoking.
>
> Hence we can conclude that any ritual performed is nothing but the
> manifestation of our inner feelings. That is why Sri Sri Swamiji of
> Sringeri in his
> commentary on Viveka Chudamani mentions, "Bhaktihi maanasadharmah
> tadabhivyanjaka dehavyaparaha prahvibhaavaha ."
>
> (Bhakthi is an intellectual disposition, "Prahvi bhaava" is nothing but an
> articulation of the body to manifest the feeling of "Prahvi bhaava" or
> humility).
> So, it connotes that the feeling should arise first and then the rituals
> follow. Imagine an individual shaking hands with us, absolutely without any
> feelings,
> or an individual who performs Pranams without any feelings or does worship
> without any feeling. We can easily discern the mechanical nature of the
> ritual,
> devoid of the internal feeling. We simply say he is doing it mechanically.
> What is the use? Absolutely nothing, except an exercise for the body!!
>
> The question may arise, "What is the use of a ritual at all? Isn't it is
> enough if one has only the feelings? No. Man's nature compels him to find
> an outlet
> for his emotions by doing various actions. We find satisfaction in doing
> something under its influence. That is Ritual.
>
> There may be rituals or actions which do not require any feelings to be
> aroused. But we know that any action done with "Shraddha" or "faithfully",
> is better
> than one done without any feeling of Shraddha. Teaching in a class is a
> ritual. It can be done in two ways. The teacher prepares well and delivers
> in such a
> way that all the students understand it well. This is the feeling of
> Shraddha. It can be delivered just like that without proper preparation,
> without bothering
> himself to know whether the students have understood or not. The first way
> of delivering is definitely better than the second way. A man has to give
> back the
> debt to the individual from whom he has taken the money. This can again be
> done in two ways. With all reluctance, he can just give back the money
> without even
> a murmur of thanks. It can also be given back with a pure sense of
> gratitude, profusely thanking the individual. The second way is definitely
> better. It is
> therefore said that, the intention behind an action is much more important
> than the action itself.
>
> As Aldous Huxley puts it, "A well-performed ritual is a work of art by
> which even a skeptical spectator will get a kick. It will give an enduring
> and lingering
> satisfaction to both."
>
> How can we get the intentions or feelings of gratitude, love and respect
> aroused? It may not be difficult towards an individual who has helped us,
> or one who
> commands respect by his character itself, or one towards whom we have
> natural feeling of affection because he happens to be our kith and kin.
> But, how do we
> get the feelings of respect, love, gratitude aroused towards something
> which we can neither see or touch? Or how can we gain that "lingering
> satisfaction"
> or the "kick" that Huxley talks about, when a ritual is well-performed?
> That is where the Mantras, the Shlokas, the Sahasranamas come in. When the
> Mantra
> extols the greatness of that Almighty, as one who has created this
> wonderful world, or who has given us this body of ours, or one who has
> provided us with all
> the paraphernalia required for our enjoyment, etc, we naturally feel
> grateful to HIM and the ritual of Pooja in different forms attains some
> meaning. This can
> happen only when we understand what is being uttered, be it a Mantra, a
> Shloka or a Nama. If we do not understand anything, but perform the "act"
> only,
> it becomes a meaningless ritual.
>
> It is to gain that pure feeling of lingering satisfaction, a feeling
> bereft of all the negative thoughts, that we MUST understand and be
> involved in whatever
> ritual we perform.
>
> A Pooja is being performed. The Purohit says "Paadyam Samarpayami" and
> asks us to offer two spoonfuls of water, by pouring that into another
> vessel. What is
> this Ritual? "Paadyam Samarpayami" means, we are offering water for God,
> to wash his feet. This concept is the same as what we offer to an esteemed
> guest coming
> to our house. We make him sit on a chair, and wash his feet or offer water
> to him to wash his feet himself. That is "Paadyam". When we are performing
> Pooja
> we do not have the God in human form, but only as an idol or a photograph,
> or a painting or a Saligrama or Linga. We cannot see his feet and wash.
> What should
> we do? We have to simply imagine HIM in the human form and imagine washing
> HIS feet when we offer two spoonfuls of water. The offering of two spoons
> into
> another vessel is purely symbolic, but our feeling must be complete with
> the feeling of washing of his feet. All these are contained in the two
> words:
>
>  Paadyam Samarpayami .
>
> By any stretch of imagination, we cannot say that the two Sanskrit words
> or an appropriate Mantra or Sloka has the power to take the two spoonfuls
> of water
> to the actual feet of GOD. It is ridiculous!
>
> (The words definitely do not mean just offering of two spoons of water!)
> In addition ,we can recite a Mantra or Shloka in praise of the Deity and
> imagine
> washing HIS feet. The same concept is there in all the Upacharas. We offer
> food as "Naivedyam" - What is that? It is no doubt a ritual, but if done
> with
> understanding, provides a wonderful mental satisfaction of having fed God
> with our choicest foods. We offer many many things knowing fully well that
> God
> does not consume them. It is only for OUR satisfaction that we offer. That
> is why Pooja is defined as "Poojanama santosha janakaha karma samudaayaha ."
> Pooja is nothing but a bundle of rituals giving pleasure to the performer.
>
> Today, unfortunately, even the recitation is done by the Purohit and he
> does not bother whether the doer listens to them or not and neither is the
> "doer"
> interested in knowing what is being done. But the actions or rituals are
> gone through scrupulously. How can we reconcile with such a situation?
> Should we
> believe that whatever we do, Abhiseka, or Naivedya, etc etc, will reach
> the Deity? If it has to reach the deity, then by what power or mechanism?
> Simply saying
> that the power of the Mantra or Shloka preceeding the ritual will take the
> materials to the deity is meaningless. Commonsense tells us that this is a
> very
> far-fetched imagination and cannot be a fact. Well, we can certainly
> imagine that the Naivedya has reached the Godhead. Nothing wrong, but it
> can remain only
> as an imagination, a pious heart felt feeling. If such a pious feeling has
> to be aroused in our hearts, we must understand what we have recited. When
> we recite
> "sahasra sheerShA purushaha" and perform "Aavahana" to the deity, what is
> the feeling that should be evoked? It is that, The great "Purusha", who is
> behind
> all the heads, feet, eyes and hands in all the living beings of the entire
> universe, and one who is Omnipresent, and one who transcends this universe
> by a
> large measure, is being invoked, so that we can feel his presence in the
> symbols in front of us. This is the essence of the Mantra. When we do the
> Avahanam
> to any deity with this Mantra, we only feel that great "Purusha" is here,
> in the symbol that we are worshipping. The action of offering flowers or
> Akshata
> to the Idol, is symbolic and only to strengthen the feeling that HE is in
> the Idol. The other Mantras in the "Purushasuktha" extols the greatness of
> that
> "Purusha" and when we do each upachaara by reciting those Mantras, we feel
> as if that great "Purusha" is in front of us symbolically and is accepting
> what
> we offer. All the actions or rituals for the Upachaaras are just outlets
> for our feelings "The Mantras of the Purushasuktha", by any stretch of
> imagination,
> cannot literally carry what we offer, and make them reach that "Purusha".
> After all, where is HE? HE is every where. For our convenience, for the
> ease of
> meditation and contemplation, we have many types of symbols to which we
> offer the Upacharas.
>
>
> (To be continued...)
>
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