Hindu Philosophy- A Rational Life

  Religion means simplicity   If we take religion as simple way of life then it would certainly provide simplicity and healthy society. If again we take religion as brotherhood harmony and love of Nature that it would certainly provide easy and plain with trouble free life. But certainly we witness religion as complex and full of superstition and multifaceted intricate way of life that provide society thorny and knotty life within society.   What we generally do is that whenever we encounter something new or witness a simple culture we start framing it into religion. The problem is that we do not enjoy that culture or the basic principle of some tradition can also be very simple. We mostly connect simplicity with god or religion and made it complex but unable to understand that some customs are beautiful and they are part of Hindu ideology and the beauty is that they are scientific.   I mean a village where even in 2020 AD, there is no pakka house and the w...

Rituals in India- Local deities Almost every community of this colorful and cultural land of Rajasthan has their own deity and every village has a temple of different deity. The importance of the deity is so specific that the community does nothing without taking permission from these deities. They have their own language, rituals, folk dances, songs and stories of courage and warriors.   These deities are ancestors of a village with symbolic terms and symbols of courage and stories printed on temples. One of the important features of these deities is their flags by which they are recognized. There are some flags which are huge and have different symbols on it. During the procession of religious ceremonies, the main panch carry the flag so that people can recognize the group that they are coming from a certain village.   It is not fair to say that the whole of India believe and practice same religion. There are hundreds of communities and sub communities and every commun...

Rituals in India-  Feast on death There is a ritual in Hindu religion which is known as Mautana . The ritual says that after the twelfth day of the death of the head of the family, the family has to organize a feast for the community. The number of days varies from one community to another. Some organize Mautana on the eleventh day and some on thirteenth day. The ritual in upper caste is known as a pagari rasam- announcing the next head of the family and the community witnesses this celebration in which a turban is offered to the next head of the family. The feast also organized on this occasion with sweets in different verities and also gift to the main member of the society. The theme of this ritual is to crown the next head of the family and mostly the eldest son of the family is nominated as the head. Women are not allowed to become head of the family and only the male can be the head of the family. With changing time, the ritual turned to extravagant affairs in which the...

Rituals in India-  Alteration of soul   Almost in every village of Rajasthan, where tradition and culture is the root of society and even at present in the age of technology, people maintain their customs and rituals with great care, without using reasoning and science. One of the most important custom of this colorful and courageous land is “ Bhav ” a transporting of soul of a dead in a living body, suppressing the original soul in the body for some time and talk to people and also suggest something good and also warn them for consequences. The Bhav comes when mostly the dead souls wanted to communicated to their people about their deeds. Generally these souls are angry while sitting somewhere, either in hell on in paradise or just roaming all around the world, that no one knows and nor these souls uttered anything about their dwelling places. They incarnate in a living body and then give advises to the community or to the family. Interestingly these souls only transmi...

Rituals in India- Child marriage According to elderly people of some communities, child marriage is one of the reasons to start this nata pratha. The child marriage is still in practice in the state of Rajasthan and even after making it a crime, legally, communities are not coming out of it. The child marriage means, a marriage of children at tender age but in most of the communities the cohabitation is allowed when the members of a couple reached to the age of adult. There are hundreds of cases and photographs carried by newspapers, when children aged 1 to 3 were tied in the knot of marriage by parents and the whole community gathered in the celebration and witnesses this ritual. Even at present communities prefer child marriages and they give logic that child marriage save extravagant and expenses of marrying their children differently. Still there are hundreds of couples living happily who had child marriage and now they are lawyers, doctors, police officials and also politician...

Rituals in India- Natha Pratha - live-in relation ‘Nata pratha’ is a ritual still practiced in the state of Rajasthan mostly in all local communities. Nata means a relation or making a relation with another man or woman even at the time when husband or wife is alive. It is a conditional live-in- relation with the permission of community. It is a freedom to start a new life with new love and with new dreams and this ritual is not limited to one or two chances but it can go long as the desire remains and they have money to manage such relations. This ritual is different from prostitution as it is cohabitation with only one man at one time and no other man is allowed to touch the woman. Nata means a social rule to arrange a partner for a man or for a woman when she or he is alone in the society. Nata, literary means, in relation open for both man and woman without discrimination. It is the duty of the community to arrange a balance life and maintain the social fabric and also a resp...