Rituals and Religion

                                                     

                        Rituals and religion are two aspects that are interlinked and connected to each other. When  we believe in and follow a religion we automatically follow the rituals that are the characteristic of that religion. Rituals involve going to the temple, church, mosque, kneeling down to sculptures and idols, praying, fasting, sacrificing animals to please the Gods, going to a Sunday mass, worshipping the stone idols, going on a pilgrimage, giving religious donations to please  the Gods, bathing in a holy river to   purify sins etc. Religion on the other hand is the product of all these unnecessary rituals which is man made and we should understand that religions are temporary, and which have no permanent and everlasting value. Any kind of rituals that a religion establishes cannot purify any of  our negative karma nor can it help us unite with our respective Gods in a permanent manner. Rituals and religions were  not established by the Prophets like Mohammed, Christ, Buddha or a Krishna, rather it was established by the not so spiritually evolved but ordinary religious followers of these respective Prophets. This is the principle reason why rituals and religion have no permanent value, are temporary and will be stopped to follow in the coming years to come.

                         Ram was a holy and pious human being and a great devotee of Lord Shiva. Every morning he had the practice of waking up at 4a.m.at Brahmamuhurtam, milking his cow for a pot of milk, bathing, putting on clean clothes, walking bare feet the one hour to the Pashupatinath temple, worshipping the Shivalingam and bathing it with the potful of cow milk. This practice had been going on for many years and Narad having pity on him appeared before him one morning on the day of Mahashivaratri. Narad smiled the most seductive smile and relayed the Divine Mothers message to the great devotee, Ram."Dear Ram, you have been wishing for many years to get the grace of God by your devout religious rituals but you may not be aware that the real grace of God is not achieved by your devout worship to Lord Shiva but rather by meditating on the Divine Mother everyday and awakening your soul. Doing this would wash away your sins of innumerable births, entering the kingdom of heaven, achieving and uniting with the most Supreme Godhead and getting into the field of everlasting grace forever ".Saying this Narad bid farewell to the religious follower.

                         The  practice of rituals by the so-called religious followers bind them blindly to the belief that it is a means to attain salvation. True salvation can be attained only by the state of Enlightment and not even by the most holiest of rituals and the greatest of religious sacrifices. True salvation is not attained by no matter how holy, pious and deeply religious you  are. Only spiritually advanced souls who are God realized attain salvation and no other human beings who happen to be the most strict disciplinarians of rituals and religion and who are not so spiritually advanced nor lucky enough to have reached to at least the sixth spiritual plane to have themselves God realized. Human sins or  negative karma cannot be washed away by practicing the rituals of any kind of religion. The only permanent way to purify your sins or your negative karma is through the spiritual or meditative growth process. You will be bound to your karmic bondage as long as you don’t reach a stage on the spiritual plane where your negative karmas or your sins shall be purified and washed away forever. Everything is predetermined and your past karma will have to be taken into account no matter how devotedly you worship the Gods. Rituals that each religion possesses is only a medium to worship the man-made Gods and not to achieve, get the true grace of the most Supreme Godhead and unite with him. I wonder why people fear the man-made Gods and worship them when they are not responsible for a single thing in our lives. If  you want  to worship someone of value, worship and meditate on the One everyday who is responsible for our existence on planet earth and who controls every thought, word or deed of ours –The Divine Mother, Brahman or God.

                     True religion is not Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism or any other religion in the world which are temporary, not permanent and which cannot contribute of any lasting value to planet earth. Religions were not created by the Prophets but were invented by the not so spiritually advanced religious followers of the Prophets. Since the very invention, construction and establishment of religions are man-made their existence are impermanent and that is why minor and major religions are going to disappear from planet earth  with the gradual passage of time. The true and permanent religions of the world are the spiritual movements like the T.M.movement, Sri Sri Ravishankers movement, Om Shanti, Yogoda Satsanga Society of India, Self Realization Fellowship and other major spiritual movements which helps uplift the spiritual status of human beings. Religions which merely dictates a few religious principles, binds human beings to rituals which are of no value and which bids human beings a final farewell from planet earth without achieving anything of significant spiritual value are not true religions. Religions cannot unite but can do nothing better than contain human beings into various concentrations of segregated mobs. The major religions of the world has done nothing better than  keep their religious followers stagnant, idle, static and obstructing their path to the Truth by drawing them away from the source of the only One and Real, The Divine Mother or God.

                        It is high time we human beings realise  that following rituals and religion can not get us to achieve and unite with God nor get the true grace of God. True grace of God is only achieved by entering the Kingdom of Heaven through tapping the everlasting source of happiness. Performing the rituals and following a religion is one life wasted but meditating on the Divine Mother or the most Supreme Godhead is the entire Kingdom of Heaven gained. The Kingdom of Heaven can only be gained with a regular and committed meditation practice and having your soul awareness awakened. The only practice to make entering the Kingdom of Heaven a living reality would be to learn a practical and effective meditation technique and get in touch with that everlasting source which we have been born to achieve.
                                         (This article is the copyright of Ashwas Thapa)