MECHANICAL RITUALISM!
The dividing line between enlightened faith and faith generated by blind fear is very thin.Whether a man has genuine faith born of knowledge or whether it is the result of a fear complex,is for a psychoanalyst to unravel.But so for as the votaries of Hinduism are concerned,it can be safely averred that the main spring of their faith is either a dread of the ire of the deities or hope of reaping material benefits by propitiating them or usually a mixture of both.
This thesis is proved by the fact that worship of credulous and gullible is not confined to a transcendent soul as enjoined upon them by Upnishadas.It is not limited to one anthropomorphic 'god'nor even to a few 'gods' of sufficient stature,as prescribed in the Puranas and other scriptures,but to all sort of 'powers', including trees and plants,rivers,stones,animals,relics and simians.
For followers,Shesh the serpent,Hanuman the monkey,Guruda the one legged Sanskrit speaking bird,Ganesha the Elephant headed 'god' are all entitled to as much respect and obeisance as Shiva or Vishnu.
So for as formalism or mechanical ritualism is concerned,there is probably none in this wide world to beat followers.Most Hindus go through the motions of a religious ceremony,spread over hours,without having the ghost of an idea of what is being done.Devotees behave like kites,whose strings are in the hands of Brahmins,who have got sufficient 'professional expertise' to exploit them on various levels-purely for their ulterior motives.Another example of mechanical religiosity among the Hindus is that of devotees reciting Sanskrit verses parrot like with great gusto,but following at best a word or two [usually one of the myriad synonyms of 'god']out of the whole prayer.
The dividing line between enlightened faith and faith generated by blind fear is very thin.Whether a man has genuine faith born of knowledge or whether it is the result of a fear complex,is for a psychoanalyst to unravel.But so for as the votaries of Hinduism are concerned,it can be safely averred that the main spring of their faith is either a dread of the ire of the deities or hope of reaping material benefits by propitiating them or usually a mixture of both.
This thesis is proved by the fact that worship of credulous and gullible is not confined to a transcendent soul as enjoined upon them by Upnishadas.It is not limited to one anthropomorphic 'god'nor even to a few 'gods' of sufficient stature,as prescribed in the Puranas and other scriptures,but to all sort of 'powers', including trees and plants,rivers,stones,animals,relics and simians.
For followers,Shesh the serpent,Hanuman the monkey,Guruda the one legged Sanskrit speaking bird,Ganesha the Elephant headed 'god' are all entitled to as much respect and obeisance as Shiva or Vishnu.
So for as formalism or mechanical ritualism is concerned,there is probably none in this wide world to beat followers.Most Hindus go through the motions of a religious ceremony,spread over hours,without having the ghost of an idea of what is being done.Devotees behave like kites,whose strings are in the hands of Brahmins,who have got sufficient 'professional expertise' to exploit them on various levels-purely for their ulterior motives.Another example of mechanical religiosity among the Hindus is that of devotees reciting Sanskrit verses parrot like with great gusto,but following at best a word or two [usually one of the myriad synonyms of 'god']out of the whole prayer.
