Hindu Pastors

Hindu Pastors

Warning.  There is nothing new to share.  The same old rhetoric.  As I want to leave a record of some current trends, again I wrote this.

We all know well that ‘old habits hardly die’.  But now I realize that the same is true even to the new habits that we learnt quickly as a Hindu bhaktas due to Christian influence.  And for some reason, we don’t want to kill the new habits that we learnt that are no more relevant for our bhakti in the Lord as Hindus.

One such new habit is ‘contextulization’.  Time and again I insisted that there is no need for us to ‘contextualize’ anything in our culture and tradition.  We are free to use every cultural and traditional values and views, however overlapping with certain Hindu religious thoughts. 

But in the name of contextualization, all the three major life cycle events [Birth, Marriage and death], are contextualized by some Hindu bhaktas just ‘sprinkling’  Mukti Panti Holy water on several Hindu rituals claiming that they want to do them now as per Muktiveda.

However I tried to prove that there exists no Mukti Vedic rituals regarding any lifecycle events, they are not ready to agree.  Their only one argument is: Then how do we differentiate our life as Hindu bhaktas in our family and community?  Of course I pointed out that by doing some ‘RECYCLED’ so called Mukti Vedic rituals you are not at all proving that you now started to lead a different kind of life—particularly beginning from that day after performing the so called Mukti Vedic samskaras [there by presuming that you have now taken a STAND for the Lord] as a Hindu bhakta.  The REALITY is that, ‘WHATEVER WE MIGHT PREACH (even as a Hindu bhakta) WHEN IT COMES TO PRACTICAL LIFE, EVERYBODY HAS THE SAME RELIGION.

WHAT GOING TO DIFFERENTIATE YOU FROM OTHERS IN YOUR HOME IS NOT THAT RITUAL DONE ONE TIME IN LIFE. Unless one gets another opportunity to marry a second time due to various reasons.  In case of death ritual even that hope is last viz., no more second final rite to the body in case if your body is cremated.  Whereas if you were buried, then your other son, who is not a bhakta of the Lord might exhume it and do another Hindu ritual and bury again, as happened in one family.  The ‘converted’ son performed a ‘Christian ritual’ to his mother and was buried.  Her second son came and exhumed the body and did another Hindu ritual and re-buried again.  But the way YOU LIVE EVERYDAY BASED ON THE VALUE THAT YOU CLAIM TO HAVE INHERITED FROM THE LORD alone will prove your bhakti in the Lord.

I was even shocked when one leader vehemently argued that when we negotiate any marriage ritual [here the case is that the boy is a Hindu bhakta and the girl is not.  Or both of them bhaktas but their parents are not] we should make it clear to the girl side [who alone will arrange the priest and other rituals as per their family tradition] that either we would do as per our MUKTI PANTHI RITUAL [by our own Hindu Pastors] and won’t agree to their kind of marriage rituals.

This is what the Christian Pastors used to do to the Christian converts.  And now a new kind of Hindu Pastors are doing the same but beating ‘dollak’ instead of ‘drum’.

Marriage is the responsibility of the family and not that of the Hindu Pastor’s.  The Hindu Pastor will go and do the so-called Mukti Panthi ritual, collect his dakshina and will disappear from the life of that couple [unless the couple become FULL TIME WORKERS and the Hindu Pastor is somehow related to that Organization.] 

But the marriage function is a prestige issue for the family and the whole extended relatives are involved in it.  It is not a one family event.  It is their daughter, their function, their expenditure, their responsibility.  This being the reality, what right the Hindu Pastors have to say ‘NO’ if the girl family insists on doing the marriage only with their priest and in their own family tradition.  We have no right to interfere. 

Of course I am not denying the right of the couple to do their marriage ritual as per bhakti and desire.  But as marriage is more a social event, going along with the family and doing as per the family tradition—even involving certain rituals to the family deity or village deity does not mean that they have now denied their bhakt/faith in the Lord and compromised.  Accepting the so-called spiritual authority of the Hindu Pastor in the name of Muktivedic ritual, if something goes wrong in the life of the couple, the entire family will blame not only the Hindu Pastor but the couple.  However again the birth families alone will be involved in solving the crises and not the Hindu Pastor—like the Christian Pastor.

Finally one bhakta, who is very serious and honest about his bhakti and life complained to me, ‘but the Pandi is coming to make us do Idol worship’ [pandit aakar murthy pooja karvaatha hai].

Do you call the Pandit only to make you do puja to the Image in your marriage?  Or the Pandit comes to conduct marriage rituals in which a small puja to the Images are also involved. 

I have never seen anyone arranging a marriage for the boy ONLY TO DO PUJA TO THE IMAGE.  A priest will come and guide you to Image Puja when you exclusively call him for that purpose on certain festivals [like Ganesha homa; Satya Narayana pubha etc.] but not in marriage or final rites.  In marriage most of the rituals were done by women and the priest role is very limited in chanting mantras related to tying mangalsutra or sindur dhan or specific rituals exclusively a priest can do.  There are so many other rituals in a marriage which have nothing to do with image worship.  In case of a Brahmin [my study here limited to South] going Kashi Yatra, Swing, changing Junub [thread], doing sankalpa to the boy, performing Marriage Homa etc. etc. are done by the priest.  In them also women and both parents, including maternal uncle, are involved.

So saying that the priest comes only to force you to do puja to an idol is wrong and this is mere excuses to justify your stand to impose the so-called Mukti Panti Marriage ritual.  Does a Christian Pastor give only communion to the couple in the marriage?

Finally, though I too was involved with it was discussed to give a new name to replace HYB [which I highly criticized and questioned] finally they came up with this new term as Mukti Pantis.  But I would even question this also?  I would prefer each and every bhakta to remain as he or she is part of her family identity and not try to put a label over that as Mukti Pantis.  There is no point in pointing to the existence of Kabir Pantis, Radhe Shyam, Nirankaris.  That evolved over several centuries and now gained more of a community identity.  A Mukti Panti might say, ‘the same would happen in our movement after several centuries’.  But I don’t see any need for it and we can live naturally as a child of our own family tradition keeping our bhakti in the Lord not putting new labels in our conscious or spirit or in our social identity.

Don’t beat dolak to replace the drum.  Play dholak naturally and spontaneously.   

Rewa

14-11-23