Rituals, meditation and courage
Q: While we are on the topic of rituals, can you please tell us something about the path of rituals and the path of meditation?
When you decide to follow the ritualistic path, commitment and sincerity must become your master keys. So do it with utmost sincerity. Then that too becomes spirituality. Today, there are hundreds of ways to do ritualistic worship. You don't have to get confused as to which to follow. Just decide to follow any one way and do it with commitment. It is the commitment that gets you the benefit, not the ritual itself.
Also, don't look for instant results. Today, everyone wants instant results like instant tea and coffee. Most of us feel that others' prayers are getting answered quicker than ours and so we should shift from our type of worship to theirs'. So much of comparison even in worship! Do what you are doing with commitment and faith, and leave the rest open. Things will happen automatically.
The ultimate goal of any religion or ritual is to tune in with Existence. Rituals are not a transaction to bribe the Gods.
I am reminded of a story:
Three men started a business together. They decided to include God as a partner in it.
They agreed that whatever profit they got, they would give away one percent of it to God.
They started the business and made unexpectedly high profits.
Then came the problem: How to give away so much to God?
Each of them gave a suggestion.
The first man said, 'Alright, let's draw a circle and throw up all the money. Whatever falls inside the circle is God's and whatever falls outside is ours.'
The second man said, 'No. I have a better idea. We will draw a really big circle and throw all the money up. Whatever falls inside is ours and whatever falls outside is God's.' The third man said, 'Look, anyway God is above us. Let us throw all the money up. Whatever he wants, let him take. Whatever comes down is ours!'
As long as we want something, we bribe God for it. As soon as we get it, we drop him until the next want arises! This is how we are taught to function.
Anyhow, coming back to the topic of rituals, there is something definite about them. It is structured and you know when exactly it is going to start, when it is going to finish, where you are going to do it, why you are doing it, etc. With rituals, you go into them, and come out as the same person. There is so much security in the whole process. That is why it has spread so much. Anything that is definite spreads.
But what happens in meditation? First of all, meditation seems too simple to produce any benefits when compared to rituals. People always ask me why I do rituals at the ashram. I tell them, 'If I tell people to simply come to the ashram and sit under the banyan tree and meditate, which is actually enough, they will not listen.'
If I did not have the temple, if they did not see the deities there, probably only I would be sitting under the banyan tree and meditating!
To make people take the first step towards their inner journey, I have to show them some of the things that exist in their minds. I have to talk in their language.
They will be very happy to see the Dakshinamurthy deity under the banyan tree, although they will be blissfully unaware of the energy field that is actually there around the banyan tree even in the absence of the Dakshinamurthy deity. This banyan tree is live energy. Its silence is a vibrating silence. It is enough if you just sit under it in meditation. You don't have to do anything complicated. Every leaf and twig here talks.
See, when you continue to worship idols, you have to become more and more aware of the tremendous presence of Existence that you are trying to connect with through the idol. Then you will automatically start seeing God everywhere. You will understand that it is not just the idol but the whole of creation that is pregnant with the presence of God. Then you can start relating with the whole of Existence.
In the case of meditation, if you go into it with sincerity, the outcome is not definite. A personality change may happen. You may emerge as a different person and this is seen as a great risk! It is like taking a gamble. Transformation starts happening. It is this transformation that you are actually seeking, but when it happens you are afraid.
You feel comfortable in the security of rituals. Rituals become a part of your every-day routine.
When you meditate, your awareness increases and when this happens, the fence that you have imagined around yourself, which actually society has put around you, slowly dissolves and you feel rebellious, not against society but against your own unconscious and ignorant state. This rebellion causes you to probe more into the cause of it and it opens out further avenues for you.
This is how you move deeper and deeper into a space that you have never entered before; a space which society does not even know; a space that has all along been inside you but locked; a space for which you have been unknowingly searching for a key to unlock. When you have found this space, you have arrived!
It is like this:
A cow is tied to a rope and given a few meters of radius to move around.
It moves around and becomes aware and mature through its intelligence.
Then, the rope is loosened a little, giving it a few more meters of radius.
It goes further around and becomes more intelligent and then it is given still more length
The more his consciousness grows, the greater freedom he enjoys of rope to wander.
Depending on the cow's growing intelligence and consciousness, it can even be let free at some point in time! The same thing happens in man. The more his consciousness grows, the greater freedom he enjoys and the cycle continues.