Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
4 January 2018
Ritual
“Religious action”
Religious ritual means a physical action to God done with devotion, humility and unconditional love. A physical, religious ritual, meaning an action, is done to God in every religion. A physical, religious ritual to God is done daily in every Indian house.
A physical, religious ritual to God has deeper significance than the superficial significance in any religion. A superficial significance for doing a ritual is what man believes a ritual is meant for. Every man and woman knows what his beliefs for doing a physical, religious ritual are in every religion.
If he or she is honest to admit his or her beliefs for doing a religious ritual, they would know it and there is no need to write the beliefs known by a man or a woman. It may be a wish, a want, a desire or a request from God.
A deeper significance of a religious service to God needs to be understood by every man and woman if they wish, want and desire to be close to God. God or the intelligence in life gives every opportunity to man and woman to be close to God and a physical, religious ritual is one of the many opportunities given to him or to her.
Firstly, the room in an Indian house is cleaned before doing the religious ritual and for doing a religious ritual an image of God, as either a photo or a statue, is used. This signifies that the mind should be clean every moment of the day and every image of a man and a woman in a family, or anyone, is created by God.
Similarly, in every religion the place of worship to God is cleaned before any ritual. This signifies that the mind should be clean every moment of the day and every image of a man and a woman in a family, or anyone, is created by God.
The mind is clean if unconditional love is present. The mind is clean if anger is absent. The mind is clean while in a temple, church or any place of worship and needs to be clean in the house as well.
A religious, physical ritual is a reminder to man and woman that every room in the house is a temple, a church or any religious place, because God is everywhere.
Secondly, for doing an Indian, religious ritual, flowers, incense stick, a fruit and water are used. The incense smell is air. Fire is also used to burn camphor. This signifies that the elements fire, air, water, earth, of which every human being is made up, are created by God. Similarly, in every religion, light signifies divinity.
This signifies that every human being is an image created by God and is to be received and responded with unconditional love.
A physical, religious ritual in any religion takes many actions to complete the ritual. This indicates that every action taken by a man or a woman in a family is created by God. When a man or a woman does not understand the deeper significance of a religious ritual, their rituals never reach God. The rituals merely become behaviour to exhibit that they are close to God, while they cannot be.
When a man or a woman understands the deeper significance of a religious ritual in any religion, he or she will understand that living every moment of daily life in the house or outside the house with unconditional love is the real, religious ritual to God.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2017
Editor’s Note
From the specific, religious rituals that take place in a temple, a church, a mosque or any recognized place of worship, the wisdom of Dr Shankar gently leads the reader to a deeper understanding of participation in daily life. This article enlightens the mind with a deeper appreciation of living without conditions. Such may be the experience in reading this article.
Julian Capper, UK.
German Translator‘s Note:
Religious rituals are invented by wise men and women in ancient times in every religion. They had a deep understanding of life which they wanted to share through the rituals with their fellow humans. However, the knowledgeable priests had a superficial understanding of those rituals and turned them into mere behaviour. Dr. Shankar, by sharing a deep understanding of religious rituals, helps to overcome the mental distance between humans as well as between humans and God so to speak. If by unconditional love humans are empathically connected to each other, they are connected to God too, because God is in all creatures. Dr. Shankar reminds us in this article that this is true for every religion. It is the deep understanding of any religion‘s mystic which is shared here with humanity.
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany.