Spirituality - only a science ??!!

Venkatakila...
You have not read my fb properly...
I have not spoken about Arunthati seeing...
I have spoken about the sequence in Bhagyaraj's film...
When you speak of a pathni,immediately you are tutored to recall names of unseen but heard of in puranic tales...like Arunthati,Sita,Draupatdi,Mandodari etc...
But ,are no pathnis there in real life? Why do you not talk about your mother/wife or sister whois no less a pathni than them?
That was the inner meaning of the the sequence...

Unknown people may give us positive vibes but real life people with the same qualities -make us hold our heads high...they are reality!

And -Arunthathi Seeing is done in broad daylight...when stars are not visible( again ,a Putting the cat in a basket -act)

 

Sadhu, sorry to hear that you had to go through this no temple phase too. I do not know the scientific reason behind this, but the spiritual/religious reason is that one should not go to the temple atleast for few weeks following a death as they might be carrying the negative energy/vibes into the temple, a place which is full of positive energy.
for salutations & to get cosmic energy. & i luv to see god in adornments , alankarams . we feel true to ourselves while in temples. - nice explanation. I too feel true and humble when I am in front of the powerful God/Goddess idol, it makes us feel little in this big world, makes our problems seem less trivial. Every good fortune, blessing, life saving event, guts or intuition that saved us is not a coincidence or has a scientific reason, there is something far above than everything, even science and I name it as God!

 

Thank you for your response Nav23. That is called Faith. You believe and feel there is a postive vibe when in the Temple and you get some peace of mind.

What I was coming down to is that questioning everything on scientific basis will not give us answers or selectively asking about few aspects alone are going to give us answers.

Nothing has influenced the world as much as science today. However, the essence of scientific knowledge is that scientific theories are based on reasoning that can be explained by logic and proven by experiment. But, one distinguishing feature of the scientific knowledge as compared to earlier knowledge is that science believes in superiority of knowledge to the creator of knowledge.

Hence, any person can challenge the theories pronounced by even the greatest scientists like Newton and Einstein. It was a major departure from the earlier methods of acquiring knowledge, where the creator of the knowledge was given higher importance than the knowledge itself.

For example, the theories or principles based on religious texts like Bible, Koran or Gita cannot be contested by any one since these were supposed to be created by God Himself or by his messenger. The result is that this knowledge became frozen in time as it lost the capacity of assimilation and growth.

A scientist can be a woman/man of faith and a faithful woman/man can be a scientist. Science and faith fused with each other as the time progressed. The element of faith or infallibility of knowledge gradually seeped into science. Scientists unknowingly and unconsciously believed some theories to be the gospel truth and stopped asking basic questions which they were expected to do in order to know the whole truth. They started calling some of these theories as laws (like laws of gravitation, Newton’s laws of motion, etc.) thereby placing them above doubt and questioning. They stopped asking questions regarding these theories as these were gradually treated by the scientific community as gospel truths. The truth is that the element of faith in science surely brought stability in the theories but stunted the growth of science itself.

Mahatma Gandhi realized his God, ‘Truth’ through his “Experiments.” The big question is: How the modern science is going to deal with these noble truths? Are they going to be rejected as “half-baked truths” simply because they have been arrived at through methods which do not conform to the tools of science. Half-baked they might appear on the radar of science, yet they have been bound up fast to the human-psyche by the mortar of Faith and, as somebody has said, ”Faith has its own reason which reason does not know.”

I am reminded of an Einstein statement, which goes something like "religion without science is lame while the science without religion is blind."

Interesting Read: http://www.update.uu.se/~fbendz/library/ae_scire.htm

 

Sadhu, Yasagam in this age? really? You're a wonderful parent for not imposing this on your children. Certain rituals make no sense. No offense, but, why create so much publicity for a natural biological thing that happens to every girl in this planet? Relatives can be involved in the celebrations, but friends, well wishes, neighbors, strangers and the whole world???
When one grand mother passed away at an old, 'have seen life fully' age, the 10th day involved exchanging new dresses, being the grand children, we had to buy new clothes for so many people, related to us one way or the other. We did receive a few new clothes as well and the belief was that we were supposed to wear it and let it tear in 2-3 years and not keep it for long. This practice never made any sense. There were some relatives who were not in a position to afford buying clothes but had to in the name of rituals and practices. I was only glad it was new clothes that one had to buy and not something high priced like gold or something.
Aspire, very interesting theory, thanks for sharing, enjoyed reading it. Thanks for sharing Einstein's perception, very interesting!!!!!

 

dear shakambari,

first my sincere apologies for posting the answer to u instead to the other member.....

then.... its true that today Arunthathi is seen during daylight just bcoz of the commercialization of purohits....

actually if u check with age old people it will be clear that previously marriages last for 5 days, and this Arunthathi comes under "Oupasanam" which is usually performed after sunset. But just bcoz the purohit wants to finish up everything quickly, they do it in the morning........only a few perform at night, we did that....

Marriages will be very simple in olden ages, no mandapam, no adambaram, no reception, no extra decorations , parlour, etc etc............today only it got converted as a lavish, money-spending event..........

Just some money-minded purohits made this happen and made rituals as lavish events.....

 

hi ,

nice write up on bhakti,

but regarding rituals, i feel that the saintly personalities u quoted "advocated rituals" but they opposed "rituals alone"......

From my limited knowledge, am writing this.....

if u go thro the third part of "Deivathin kural" "Voice of God" by Kanchi Maha Periyava, he continuously emphasis the need to do rituals and for this he offers a convincing, subtle intact reasons to follow them, even if u dont know them or understand them completely now.....

there is a sloga-saying in sanskrit" Aaacharyad padam addathe...................padam kala kremena cha"
Meaning of the slogam is A student learns a quarter of knowledge from his teacher, a quater thro self study and analysis, a quarter thro discussion with his co-friends and a quarter thro time course....."

i ve experienced during my childhood, that a portion of tough subject, which i was not able to understand completely,the same subject started to unwind itself upon constant and continuous reading.......so also the rituals....
whatever misappropriate we think of rituals are due to the following reasons
1. misunderstanding
2. blind following
3. lack of communication of deep meaning
4. generation gap
5. above all commercialization ....

All saints insisted bhakti and also rituals, but they strictly opposed rituals alone or name-sake rituals for show, which will make u dry as a "varatu vendantin"

 

to add some more as quoted by Sadhana,

9 yards- help maintain body electricity and magnetism

mantras - produce positive vibes.....

kal mela kal podathe, leg on another leg sitting position- it will induce vein problem

Mensus time separation - due to loss of blood, women lose considerable magnetic energy, which will be throbbed from others if they mix up.. another reason, the heat duirng this cycle will induce other ladies also to menstruate soon....

sevvai dosam - Rh positive/negative match to avoid erythroblastosis fetalis

naga/ thara /kalathira/mangalya dosam- various forms of genetic incompatability.

various parigaram for navagraha preethi - treatments for various ailments....
eg if u have skin disorder go to suryanaraya temple bcoz outer layer of skin problems arises due to sun(melanin content etc)....

these Rituals, astrology true but there are many many many frauds to misguide us since we are ignorant.......

eg moola star lady is not good etc.... these developed due to evil minded people .....

 

hi sadhana

am happy to hear that u did not pay that amt to the purohit, instead spend that purposefully.... i agree to that completely.....

My point is " where does the problem lies here, with the purohit or with the rituals"....

it is absolutely the purohit who made this happen utilizing our emotions and ignorance, and not the rituals...
We have lots and lot of Poli-doctors , likewise poli and money minded purohits, there is no harm in the diagnostic procedure or rituals,,,, only we have to be cautious and enlighten ourselves with the true knowledge and make others also aware of this..........