Words fail us as much as they shape us.
Take the word "God" for example. Its meaning ranges from an absolute God to an abstract idea/a metaphor that has widely lost its symbolic status.
Starting out as a person who believed in an all encompassing entity or agency as God but not too particular about the religious practices around it, my journey has taken me to being someone who no longer believes in the agency of a God separate from the self (and is comfortable with the randomness) but has extreme curiosity and appreciation of the evolution of the religious practices and rituals.
Religious practices may have started out as steps towards more balanced and motivated ways of living. Sunday church/ pooja rituals are absolute means to socialize in harmony. Many ablutions and prayer steps help with consistent stretches of the body. Lighting a lamp in the evening could be that break you take to reflect on the day before moving to a relaxing evening, a good means to wellness. I have chanted Lalitha Sahasranamam and a few other sacred texts and I have experienced the concentration that it demands and the exhilaration that you get after the chanting is over due to being present and being razor focussed on the job at hand. It is not just the meaning of the text that's important, its the ritual of chanting them. The chanting itself is a goal, not just means to an end. These rituals bring us to the Now. It ensures that You are (or your pre frontal cortex is) in control.
Then there are rituals that may not make sense to you but you do it since you've been conditioned to do it and/or makes you feel good. Like lighting a lamp or visiting the temple. Many may or may not have historic or scientific relevance. When an atheist tries to challenge the existence of God and a ritual by questioning the facts ( the time and place of birth of Jesus, for example)is trying to use factual aid to challenge something that's anything but, yet has a place in many people's minds. Rituals do not have to be logical as long as it comes from a place of security and control and generates positive feelings as opposed to coming from a place of fear, guilt, shame and compulsion.
I wish that the religions of the world could be free of the fear and guilt it generates in some believers. Serpents, for instance, have a special place in many cultures The concept which may have arisen out of a few environment friendly older gentlefolks trying to discourage destruction of forests and to protest environment friendly snakes. "sarpadosha"(loosely translated as serpent's curse) could very well be the worlds' first sustainability initiative, which however, to this day invokes fear and people spend time and money to do endless rituals.
People who had been proponents of rituals that deal with hope and progress and social living have mostly been self development and happiness coaches of their times. Whereas today's coaches help people attain the ever elusive "happiness" which is very personal to each one's experience, the religions of the world originated as means to attain "God", again, ever elusive and personal to each person's experience.
God is like art, poetry and there can be multiple manifestations of art. Appreciating the concepts of God and religion are like a critic's or an enthusiast's appreciation of RRR or Harry Potter. It may not be believable or realistic, but it sparks your imagination and it is artistic. The result is a feeling of connectedness , a growth and transcendence beyond one's self.
Falling in love feels the same. There is a spark found in the mundane and a connectedness and a tickling of one's imagination and one transcends beyond oneself, whatever be the object of your desire/attention. It could be the sight of the leaves moving in the breeze or a butterfly or a ray of sunshine filtering through the leaves on a cold winter morning or a sparkle in the eye of the person walking opposite or a baby's smile. Staying in love only means falling in love over and over again with the same object that caught your attention.
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