The responsibilities of the performers and the priests

The performer and the priest are the two sides of the same coin of ritual. One cannot exist without the other. If there are no priests in a particular area, a performer, though interested cannot perform the ritual and vice versa. The situation is not that bad in most part of the country right now but it may become acute say, in about 50 years from now.  None of the present day priests want their sons to become priests in the next generation, understandably so, because of the prevailing economic conditions and the state of society. The future looks bleak for them. Cost escalation is affecting everybody and the priests cannot escape from it. One must understand that the priests have no regular income. There are several months in a year which are called inauspicious and no major domestic function takes place during this time. There are no such benefits as increment, pension or PF for a priest. They are totally dependent on the performers. It is, therefore, the duty of the householders to support the priests and keep them above wants. They should be paid reasonably well and they should be treated with honour. The householder should show interest in the performance of the rituals and not do them mechanically. The priests will get motivated only if the householder shows interest. They should pronounce all the mantras correctly as directed by the priests and also learn the significance of the rituals from them. They should not ask the priests to hurry up and finish the rituals within a short time. Social aspect is important but for that sake the ritual should not be sacrificed.

The priests have a duty and responsibility to preserve the great tradition that they have inherited. They should not simply recite the mantras from their rote memory and conduct the rituals. They should know the meanings of the mantras and impart their significance to the householders. One who has learnt the Vedas but does not know the meaning is like a weight bearing pillar, say the scriptures. Money is important for life but for the sake of money, principles should not be sacrificed. Under pressure, some of the priests drop mantras, condense the ritual without any authority and try to complete the ritual as quickly as possible so that they can go and attend to another ritual elsewhere and earn money. This is unfair to themselves and their profession. They should not be greedy and avaricious. They should observe the austerities steadfastly and be a role model for the society.

The priests can play a part in making the rituals more meaningful and relevant. They can arrange to get the important mantras printed with meaning in the local language and distribute it to the performers beforehand so that they can get prepared. They should make it their obligation and bounden duty to train at least five students in the ritual tradition and preserve it for posterity.            

Before concluding this chapter, it will be worthwhile to draw the attention of the readers to some of the tidbits that appeared in Newspapers in recent times. The importance of the naming ceremony has already been brought out. Certain syllables and letters are have more value than the rest. The Hindu published a tidbit under the caption ‘All in a name’ some time back ( 12-8-2004) :

‘Whether you are the kind of guy who scores every night or the type that goes without a date for months on end, you could blame it on your name. A new study shows that the vowels and the consonants in your name have a subconscious effect on how attractive you are to other people. For boys, an attractive name contains vowel sounds made at the front of the mouth, such as ‘e’ or ‘i’. Names with fuller, rounder vowel sounds such as ‘u’ tend to score lower, which would mean that it is easier to get a date if you are Ben rather than Paul.’ Setting aside the ‘dating’ aspect that is projected in this article it is important to understand that there is significance behind the tradition of choosing names as per the ritual texts.

Dr.Herbert Bensen of Harvard Medical School has developed a theory called ‘Relaxation Response’. According to him 60 % of Medical cases are stress related problems and meditation or vibrations caused by chants of mantras can reduce the stress and give relief to patients. As reported in The Hindu, dated December 7, 1995, ‘A few prayers or some “Oṁ,Oṁ” can trigger the mind to work like a drug, relieving AIDS symptoms, lowering High Blood Pressure and curing infertility. Dr. Bensen asserts, invoking prayers or mantras over and over can lower the rate of breathing and brain wave activity sometimes healing what ails you and averting need for invasive surgery and expensive medicine.  Also he said, nearly 60 % of couples who believed they were infertile conceived within six months pf practicing this technique.’ We need not elaborate much on the usefulness of rituals and the recitation of the mantras. This article speaks for itself. 

Many such researches are taking place in several parts of the world. Dr. Fred Travis, Head of the Department of Neurophysics of the Maharishi University in United States has been conducting researches and experiments on the effect of Sanskrit recitation on human beings. According to him, reading of Sanskrit verses has a profound psychological effect on the human brain. While there is a decrease in the heart beat, breath rate, skin conductance levels have been found to increase during the chanting and reading of Sanskrit verses. The study also noted that the effects of chanting and reading Sanskrit verses are equivalent to that of practicing meditation. The study has been published in an International Journal of Neuroscience. Many people have reported that Chanting of Sanskrit verses over a period of time has made them feel very calm and elated and nevertheless highly energetic. It is a kind of a high that one feels after taking a walk in the fresh morning air along the beach or the mountainside. With a lot of research being done on the impact of various sounds on the human body and the mind, the whole gamut of mantras or sound tools for enabling healing and energizing is being researched now. Traditional Sanskrit chants for good health such as ‘ āpyāyantu mamāṅgāni vāk prāṇa cakṣuḥ śrotramato balaṁ indriyāṇi ca sarvāṇi’ uses sounds to focus awareness on different parts of the body such as speech, energy, eyes, ears and all the sense organs. The mantras end with the chant of ‘Oṁ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ’ a sound that does bring with it the energies to calm the mind and bring it to a state of peace and tranquility ( Sanskrit has power to heal – by Swahilya, The New Indian Express, dated December 19, 2008).

Another news item that appeared in The Hindu, Globescan, April 5, 2000 which shows how even ordinary words pronounced with passion and love can work miracles.

‘Eleven words spoken by his best pal reportedly saved the English schoolboy, Alistair Bannon (8) by waking him from a two-week coma. All efforts to revive the accident victim Alistair had failed until Mark McLaughlin visited, according to The Sun. Mark (10) strolled up to his hospital bed and said: ‘Hello, ally, How are you doing ? When are you coming home ?’ Doctors were stunned as Alistair snapped awake instantly. He leapt out of the bed, ripped out the tubes that had been keeping him alive and walked from the ward, the tabloid said. His mother, Ms. Denise Bannon (38) said : ‘ It was a miracle, unbelievable. He must have recognised who was talking. He knew it was his little pal. I grabbed Mark and cuddled him for ages. He is my hero.’ If eleven ordinary words can work a miracle like this, one can imagine what an amount of good results the mantras can bring about, the mantras that are so sacred, are associated with great sages of yore  and  have been handed down from time immemorial. The Vedic mantras are, therefore, important and the rituals in which they are pronounced are meaningful.

It has been pointed out that the husband and wife should take good nourishment before they unite. Modern science also agrees with this view. ‘By having a good diet, people can pass on a healthy epigenome to their children, a new study has suggested. Researchers have found that human cells have the ability to remember and replicate the effects of a poor diet on the body for weeks, months and even generations. Lead Researcher Prof. Assam-el-Osta said ‘ We now know that chocolate bar you had this morning can have very acute effects and those effects continue for up to two weeks later. This is what we refer to as the burden of memory. The changes initiated by diet create a kind of ghost that lives within our genes.’ – People are what their parents ate.’ (The New Indian Express, dated February 3, 2009 )

We have seen that there are rituals to be performed by a wife to cast a spell with a herb and wean her husband away from the co-wives. It may look ridiculous but not after reading the tidbit  ‘Love spray being developed by scientists’, published in the New Indian Express dated January 9, 2009. It says ‘ Scientists believe that one day feelings of love may be induced by popping a pill or smelling perfume. They are studying the brain chemistry responsible for the complex feelings that draws us to a particular member of the opposite sex. Experiments have already shown a nasal squirt of the hormone oxytocin enhances trust and tunes people into others’ emotions. Behavioral scientist Professor Larry Young of Emory University, Georgia says: The harmone interacts with the reward and reinforcement system driven by the neuro-transmitter dopamine-the same circultry that drugs such as cocaine, nicotine and heroine act on in humans to produce euphoria and addiction.’

Some of the mantras reflect the sense-‘Let not any evil come to me. Let them be part of the enemy.’ The later part of the sentence may not have the social approval in the present day situation. But that is how they were in the past. There are also certain meaningless syllables pronounced during some of the rituals, for example, during the ‘phalīkaraṇa’ ritual of the Jātakarma (birth rites). They almost sound like ‘swearing’ on somebody. According to a report, swearing can reduce the feeling of pain. It might be socially unacceptable, but an outburst of swearing after DIY mishap or stubbing a toe can actually do some good. Scientists have discovered that uttering swear words can help to lessen the feeling of physical pain. The study by researchers at Keele University found that volunteers were able to withstand pain for longer when they swore. Dr. Richard Stephens who conducted the study believes it may explain why swearing is still common place in languages around the world. He suggests that swearing could have evolved as a way of raising aggression levels and reducing the feeling of pain to allow our ancestors to flee or fight back when attacked by predators ( The New Indian Express, dated July 13, 2009).

It may be appropriate to conclude this paper with the words of Mr. G.N.Devy ( Ritual as the World View, published in the Folio on Ritual, The Hindu, dated July 26, 1998). Ritual, after all, is probably the most imaginative and dynamic way of making sense of the immensity of the worlds unknown to us in our cosmos. Therefore, as long as there is even a small corner of the cosmic space that remains outside the scope of scientific calculations, ritual will continue as an important feature of human societies.

In order to understand the human development one must understand the religion of the people concerned. In order to have a full view of a religion, one must study the rituals, in addition to other aspects of the religion. A ritual is defined as "a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, and objects, performed in a sequestered place, and performed according to set sequence." (Ref: www. Merriam-Webster.com). Rituals prescribe strict adherence to its form, content, tradition and regulations.  All rituals are invariably associated with symbolism. If we understand the symbolism behind the rituals we can understand their significance in a better fashion.

Excerpts taken from:

Source: Dr S.Ramratnam, The Ritual Traditions of India, Published by Somaiya Publications, Mumbai,2015

Tags :

• Hindu Philosophy65

• Share on Social Media

• Follow us on Social Media