Indian Rituals and the Science behind them: Y Not We Change

         We are the modern society. We question more and act less. We are ready to criticize anything and everything. And when it comes to traditions and rituals we tend to be more cynical about them. Ours fathers usually don’t have answers for our “why we do this. Why we do that”. 

“Science and faith “… “Science and God”.. These are some topics that have been widely discussed and debated upon. I always never took a side on such topics. For me both coexist.

So here I am writing some rituals and the science behind them as why they were performed and why one should stop performing them now.

Since it is diwali time, let’s start with that only.

Bursting crackers during diwali:

 Ok for all. Diwali/Deepawali is called the festival of lights. It is celebrated for many many reasons. You might wanna check its wiki page. 

Science: the reason for bursting crackers is a way of communication with the heavenly God and informing him that all is well down here on earth. Yeah it’s not Science. But people should know as to why crackers are burst. So the very fact of bursting is void because no human down here is happy/satisfied (Fact).

Another reason is that the bursting of crackers, the smoke , the pollution causes the germs/bacteria/mosquitoes to die which are on a rise since deepawali falls right after the rains.

Now that we have the Hit/Goodnight/Banish and many more such brand of mosquitoes killers. Do we need to burst crackers? Ponder?

Next ritual is the overtly controversial Dowry. 

The dowry ritual happens during the marriage time. And I don’t need to write about it as many would know why it was/is being performed.

Science:

Dowry originated in the upper castes. And I don’t understand why all Indians resort to such rituals. Common all Indians are not upper castes. Originally dowry meant “stridhan” meaning “stri” + “dhan”. Stri meaning the bride and dhan meaning money. It essentially meant the money belongs to the bride who brings it from her family incase the man dies. But things changed and the smart Indians modified it to their own use.

Another reason was, marriages in India used to happen when children were young and small. So the girl brings in some money/utensils/stuff so that the new married couples can adjust till the man finds a job to run the family.

Time to ponder? The youths today don’t want to get married until they are capable to take care of family. Should dowry be given? Even if the groom’s family doesn’t ask , we have brides family that give money/utensils as a practice of ritual and the grooms family is not ashamed to take them as well. Damn saddening.

The chanting of OM:

Every chant/shlokas have this Om at the beginning. Many people have many meaning to it. The small children refuse to say chants and all.

Science:

The word OM has more science to it than any another word. It has specific posture that need s to be maintained while chanting it. The frequency of chanting OM has been proved to reduce heart rate and breathe rate. This in turn helps reduce tension. Apart from this there are many uses of chanting OM. Do Google.

Menstruation and science:

During this period the women is barred from doing household chores and godly matter. And in some cases the women is asked to sit aside for a period of 3-4 days.

Gals usually feel awkward and refuse. They compare it to untouchability and all. Quite evident.

Science: During this blood loss period the women is barred to perform activities. Reason is to give them rest. This period can be physically and psychologically distressing. Hence the rest.

And in olden days the hygiene was a big concern and hence they were asked to be separate and not perform godly affairs. But at this 21^st century the hygiene levels of a house is improved. The act of making them sitting alone is not valid and needs to be removed. 

The donations we do:

There is ritual in Hindus, that whenever there is a big ceremony being hosted then the host tends to donate/present gifts and stuff to people who attend. In the earlier days it was more of joy of giving. Altruism was the reason behind such donations. But nowadays people find it as additional monetary burden. For the rich it becomes a status symbolism and for the poor it is a burden. For the middle class, well they are confused. They have to maintain the money as well as save some respect.  

The middle class in order to satisfy both tend to purchase low quality stuff sometimes only present to some and ignore the others. This is not what was preached to us. When it was not taught why did we adapt it?

The main aim was donations to poor. This is what our puranas taught us. Donate to Brahmins. In the present scenarios the Brahmins are wells settled. So donate to beggars. No we don’t do that. Do we?  

PS: There are many such examples like the above. Let’s not criticize the traditions as they are useless and illogical. All rituals and traditions have their meaning and logic's but they applied to the old era.

Now the time has changed. As and when the times changed our living style and surrounding also changed. So why not our traditions and rituals. Why should we bind our present generation to those old ideas? Let’s follow only the essentials and dump those unwanted.