NRIs and Hindu Rituals
I have been getting messages from non resident Indians (NRIs) form various part of world saying that they were not able to perform Aachara (rites, rituals and samskars) in their respective country. What to do in such situation? Some of them sound scared about God’s wrath? When they face hurdles and issues in life or from growing kids or job place, they relate it with ignoring rituals.
So the question is that – “What would I do when I am not able to perform a ritual in time?”
Yes, the Aachara is the way, custom, and practice of the follower of Hindu Dharma. Aacharas is the name given to those principles of conduct which regulate people in their relations to each other. Rituals are most important aspect of our Dharma.
Our scriptures say it loud and clear: “Aacharaha paramo dharmaha, aacharaha paramam tapah, aacharaha paramam gnanam, aacharat kim na sadhyate.” For every Hindu Aachara is the most important as those are his/her Dharma. He/she MUST follow it.
To follow an Aachara we need to understand what is it and why should we follow. Unfortunately most of us do not understand even the difference between Aachara and precedence, ceremony or tradition.
Acharas are those which written in Shastra (Sutras) – dharma, Grihya , Śrauta, Pitrumedha , Prayaschitta etc (altogether Kalpa Sastra). All other things we follow are just traditions, functions or precedence. For instance, going to temple and offering pooja is a tradition. The last rites of a person are Aachara.
Hindu Acharas are NOT done for the sake of God or to reach heaven! God doesn’t need anything from us. There is NO external heaven and hell. We are doing all rituals for…
(Excerpts from my book: MANTRAS and RITUALS: THE LOGIC OF HINDU SCIENCE. For further reading: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B093Z2M52M ) You may visit Amazon site of your respective country and search “B093Z2M52M”
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By
Udaylal Pai
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