Your Friendly Philosopher & Guide

He was giving us a huge built up and was throwing many Sanskrit jargons, which we hardly understood. But we at once knew that he is going to charge a bomb soon. He marketed his services for at least 15 minutes, in spite of me asking him the rates for the same at least 5 times in between. And finally he said Rs 10,000! If he had not taken so much effort in marketing his services we probably would have taken his word. But then we tried our luck bargaining, and on top of that our budget wasn’t that much.

We started off with Rs 1000, then to Rs 1500, and both finally agreed on Rs 2116. I told him good that this ritual stuff has come down to the level of bargaining brinjals and tomatoes on the roads. And he smiled. We handed over Rs 500 as advance for him to buy stuff he would need for the ritual.

I am neither against money nor against people who love money. Money is good, money gives you luxuries, many comforts, loads of happiness and on top of it money gives power and confidence. But there are few areas where money should not be the ‘prime’ focus. If you have desires to become a millionaire there are many other professions, you need not take up social service to become a millionaire. If being in social service you become a millionaire that is fine, but your soul aim should not be making money. In that case you are not doing justice to yourself, the profession or the client for that matter.

The ritual was dated on 23rd September, and the purohit came on time. He of course did a satisfactory job. He chanted good number of mantras, and offered pindams (rice balls) to my father, and all those who died in my lineage. And I finally offered the pindams to the river Ganges. The feeling was good, and connecting to my father was an elating feeling. After the pooja was over the purohit handed over 2 bananas to us - one for my mom and one for me. We settled his bill, and he pushed off for another ritual. That probably was the costliest banana I ate in my life.

I am not against religious rituals but I am a bit against who performs it. Rituals have their reasons & powers. The mantras chanted help us to connect to the astral plane, and clears a lot of blocked energies and karmic connections.

I have many friends who are Brahmins, whose favourite diet is chicken tikka with chilled beer - non-veg is not bad, beer is not bad. But then beer and cross threads don’t gel. You either have chicken tikka and beer and remove the cross thread or wear a cross thread and follow what you promised to follow - Brahminism - when you wore the thread.
“God - may the soul of the dead rest in peace, and may the soul of all those died in my lineage rest in peace” This is the crux of the matter. What if a person just prays this to his favourite lord, and donates food to the poor? I guess the purpose is solved. I am sure that God will not have any problems understanding English or your mother tongue. He won’t be specific about Sanskrit.

When the system started ages back Brahmins were believed to be people who were never interested in money, who were mostly poor, and who always remained on strict abstinence most of the times. But these days things have changed. They are huge money-spinners, and watch new movies first day first show. They fly abroad to perform pujas and homams. I don’t know whether they are aware of the fact that – if you are a Brahmin you are not supposed to cross the sea or go abroad. You are supposed to live in India/Bharat alone!

I was under the impression that you should have done a lot of punyas (good karma) to be born in a Brahmin family and or to become a temple priest. But something was revealed to me sitting on the bank of the Ganges.

Why would God make someone to clean His idol, decorate Him, chant His name all through the day and then ask him to go with the plate for money from the worshippers if he has done loads of good karma? Also if you see - temple priests mostly dwell in poverty, and crave for money. Why is that? Here is what flashed in my mind – temple priest are not people who did a lot of good karma in their past lives to become one, but they were rich atheist buggers in their past life. So what did God do? Created them in such a way that they cannot escape to do service for the God day in and day out, and for money they have to extent their plates. Think and you will understand the logic….

The rule of life is if someone has done good Karma in his/her past life – comforts, luxury, money, fame & power will come automatically to them with least effort. If someone has done a bit less good karma – he/she has to pray and get things for them, and if someone has been really bad, no amount of prayers will help!

Not to be continued…..