18 Apr 2014
Hindu religion is actually in the top most place among all the religions of the world since it is the only religion that deals with the subject of God (Nivrutti) to the extreme depth. Unfortunately, this religion is now in the bottom most place. The reason is that today the rituals performed in Hindu religion are waste since the essence is lost. The essential packed precious item is neglected and the unnecessary waste packing material is given importance. If you understand this point, you will also appreciate the universality of the rituals with respect to the packed precious item, which is one and the same even though the packing covers are different.
Let us understand this concept with the help of the ritual performed in Hindu religion after departure of the soul. These rituals are done up to 13 days and sometimes 15 days. The essence of this ritual performed in all these days consists of two parts: i) the major part is prayers to God with devotion and ii) minor part is donation to the deserving devotees. This essence is universal in all the religions of humanity. This essence alone gives the fruit. Since this fruitful essence is seen everywhere in the world, God is impartial for spreading this essence to all the humanity without any partiality to any religion and region. God has given this precious item to all the human beings, who are His children. The language of the prayer to God and the procedure in respecting the devotees during the process of donation differ from one religion to the other, which are only the packing covers. If a specific packing cover followed in one religion is a real essence and the precious item, God become partial since that is not universal in all the religions. God becomes unjust and criminal for not spreading this to all the humanity. The prayer read in Sanskrit and the materials like dry grass, water, Black Sesame seeds etc., are not universal since the same is not seen in the ritual of every religion. In the place of such, prayers to God in their language (the Bible, the Quran etc.) and other procedures using different materials are seen.
In Hindu religion, the language of the prayer to God is Sanskrit, which is unfortunately not known to any Hindu. In the olden days, Sanskrit was mother tongue and hence, these prayers were written in Sanskrit in that time. Today, the meaning of the prayer is not known even to the reader (Priest) and not to speak of the doer and other people associated in the ritual. The prayers are generally from the Veda and the meaning of the word Veda is knowledge. The devotion comes only after having the knowledge by knowing the meaning of the prayer. Therefore, there is no sense of devotion in any person participating in the ritual. The main aim of the ritual is only to pray God with devotion. Thus, the main part is lost. Due to this, the minor part is also lost because in the absence of real devotion nobody in the ritual is a devotee. In such case, your donation to them in terms of food or cloth or money etc., becomes a waste. In such ritual, even a devotee outside becomes non-devotee and undeserving of the donation. If the ritual is performed in the right spirit, even a non-devotee outside becomes devotee and deserving in such ritual. Thus, in the present rituals of Hinduism both major and minor parts of the essence are totally lost.
In such a ritual, the doer feels that the main aim is to give food to the departed soul through the dining devotees. This concept is not true in the real sense. This concept is introduced only to force the greedy devotees to perform the ritual. Except this one aim, there is no other truth in this point. The departed soul has four ways of journey. The first type of souls goes to the abode of God called Brahma Loka and for such person there is no need of this ritual (Nahi tena pathaa tanutyajah tanayaavarjitapindakamkshinah). The second type of souls goes to Heaven and the divine nectar is its food due to which there is no need of this ritual (Ubhe teertvaa ashanaayaapipaase). The divine nectar (Amrutam) is also the immortal energy, which is the basic substratum of all the forms of universe. It is not the form of matter, which is not immortal. The third type of souls goes to the world of moon or Pitru Loka and takes the rays of moon as food and hence, there is no need of this ritual for this type also (Nirvishtasaaraam pitrubhih himaamshoh). The fourth types of souls go to hell for which food and water are not allowed due to severe punishment given and hence, there is no need of this ritual (Jaayasva mriyasva). When the soul leaves this materialistic body, it is enclosed by the energetic body. For energetic body, energy alone can be the food and not this materialistic food. Therefore, feeding the departed soul is not at all the aim since it is not true. The aim of the ritual is only to pray God to protect the departed soul and give food to the devotees assisting the prayer. The departed soul is expected to be protected since the property of the departed soul is spent in such ritual and due to such donation, the departed soul can be blessed with good fruit. The scriptures also say that the main aim of this ritual is only to protect the welfare of the doer since by such prayer and donation the doer is always blessed by the fruit of a good deed. The doer and the departed soul are blessed because the money of the doer is spent and the property of the departed soul is gained by the doer. Thus, ultimately it becomes a joint financial transaction and hence, the fruit comes to both. If the doer does not perform such ritual, the scripture says that the doer will get bad effect. The aim of the scripture is only to promote the performance of the ritual by the doer controlling the greediness and not any other intention. The doer, who did not give proper food to the alive parents, may also be forced to do these rituals for this fear only, which is the bad effect in not performing the ritual. This point is exploited by the priests for their self-benefit of getting money from the doer even though this point is mentioned in the scripture for the sake of the greedy doers. If the doer regularly prays God and performs some donation to the deserving devotees, such ritual is not essential. Hence, such ritual is not performed by and not performed for- the realised soul (Samnyaasin).
The present priests in Hindu religion do not deserve any donation. This is the worst state of Hindu religion because the priest in any religion is considered to be the leader and head in the spiritual path. The deserving qualifications mentioned by the Veda for the receiver of the donations are: i) he should be a Shrotriya meaning that he should know the true meaning of the Veda and should propagate it to others. The meaning of the word Brahmana is also the same since the word Brahma here means the meaning of the Veda as the Veda itself means knowledge (Brahma nayati iti). ii) he should not aspire for the wealth of others (Akaamahatasya). Both these qualifications are absent in the present priests. Donation is a double edged knife. If you perform it to the deserving acceptor, you will receive good result. If you perform it to an undeserving acceptor, you will receive bad result. In the place of bad result, if no result exists at least, it is tolerable since it becomes only wastage. But it is not so. Hence, you must concentrate on the analysis of identifying the deserving acceptors from the undeserving acceptors as said in the Veda (Samvidaa deyam), which says that you should analyse before donation. The first qualification exists only in God. The second qualification exists in few sacred souls and due to the presence of such souls only on this earth, the earth still exists. Generally, people give importance to place and time and not to the deservingness of the acceptor (Deshe kalecha patrecha- Gita). The place, time and deservingness of the acceptor are in the ascending order of importance, which is unfortunately reversed now. They do a hurried donation because of the place and time. They like to finish the donation before the end of the day of Shivaratri and before returning from Benaras. They should do deep analysis and take long time to identify the deserving acceptor. Once the deserving acceptor is attained, you should perform the donation immediately and such place is Benaras and such day is the Shivaratri. You can even postpone this ritual to some other day if the proper acceptor is not available. You are postponing this ritual for small reasons like eclipse etc., and neglecting this important main aspect. Lord Krishna donated only once in His life to Kuchela. Both the qualifications exist only with Lord Krishna and for a completely perfect donation, He has to donate to Himself! Therefore, He did long analysis for the deserving soul having atleast the second qualification perfectly. He analysed the mind of Kuchela till he reached his village in the return journey to see whether Kuchela develops any aspiration for His wealth. In fact, Kuchela borrowed a little quantity of parched rice from the neighbour and is expected to return it after coming from Krishna’s palace. His wife instructed him so. But, Krishna did not give anything while Kuchela was returning and more over consumed major portion of the parched rice. In spite of this, Kuchela never aspired anything from Krishna, who is the Lord of Lakshmi, the universal wealth. Such acid tests generally fail any soul.
The priests of Hindu religion should aim at the state of Kuchela. They should not aspire for anything from anybody. They should conduct the rituals feeling that they are already paid for getting a lucky chance by participating in the ritual, which is a prayer to God, the result of which is not only blessing to the doer from God but also to the priest. The donation comes from anybody by the will of God. The donation is based on the capacity (Shakti) and the faith towards the acceptor (Bhakti). The priest should not fix a rate common to poor and rich like a business man in the market. He should keep the capacity of the donor also in his view. The donor may have full capacity but if the faith towards the acceptor is less, the donation to the acceptor is also less. This also should not be criticised by the acceptor since the less faith to the acceptor is always due to the defects observed in the acceptor. The acceptor-priest should always think that God is giving the donation and the evaluation of acceptors by God is always correct. Therefore, the priests should not aspire for anything from anybody and should have faith in God, the real donor. The priest should also learn the meaning of the Veda and explain it to all the people. He should not waste his time in practicing the blind recitation of the scripture. There is no need of recitation without seeing book. He can see the book and should explain the meaning properly to develop the devotion. The priests of other religions read from their books only. If the priest is able to recite also without the book, it means he is well experienced in performing the rituals and is remembering the scripture due to frequent participation in the rituals. This is only the aim of the statement that a priest without book is better due to long experience (Tathaa likhitapaathakah). It only denotes the appreciation for the experience, which is not a mandatory. There, the instruction that the priest should know the meaning of the Veda is also given (Anarthajnah) and this is mandatory because the very meaning of the word Veda is knowledge and this point is repeatedly mentioned (Adhyetavyo jneyashcha).
Therefore, one need not be worried about the present looting rates of the priests regarding this ritual. He can perform the prayers to God in his own mother tongue without any priest and can call the best available deserving devotees for the possible donation from his side. In such way, I declare with all guarantee that such a person has performed this ritual in the real way because the basic universal essence of the ritual is performed neglecting the meaningless packing cover. I also declare with all guarantee that a doer performing this ritual neglecting the universal essence and caring for the unnecessary packing material is not performing this ritual at all and also will be punished in the hell for the donation to undeserving acceptors. Shankara alone performed this ritual for His departed mother when every priest boycotted Him denying the co-operation and such ritual performed by Him was really fruitful since He prayed to God with full devotion.
We are not denying the performance of any ritual but only recommending performing the ritual with full analysis that brings the realization of true essence of the ritual (Jnaatvaa kurveeta karmaani – Gita). If the essence is lost, the total performance of the ritual is not only waste but also a sin.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★