My Sweet Valentine (Day)
Happy Valentine’s Day every one!!!
Now, that is an interesting (millions of dollars worth) idea.
Like all other customs/beliefs, here also people are following it to the letter, rather than to the spirit.
Let me explain my self. What is better than a story to make things clear. So, here it goes.
Once upon a time, in rural India, there used to be a priest who wais highly religious (I mean he used to perform all the rituals religiously – pun intended). Every morning, he used to pray to God and offer food (“Prasadaa”, as they call it in Sanskrit) to God. There used to be a cat on the premises and it always used to interfere (as milk is one of the offerings). So, before he started his ritual offering, he used to tie the cat to one of the temple pillars, and go inside the sanctum sanctorum and finish the offering, open the doors and light the camphor, go home and have lunch. Every day his teenage son used to observe this routine. One day the priest had to go out of town on urgent work. He asked his son to offer Prasada to God that day. So, the son went to the temple, tied the cat, closesd the doors, after a while opened the doors and lit camphor, and then went home for lunch. His mother, meanwhile, was busy preparing Prasadaa. The son told the stunned mother that Prsadaa offering is complete.
Now, like the youth of today, the son was just following the ritual to the letter and not in spirit. Pretty soon, the original context and spirit will be forgotten. And then a wise group crops up and questions the need to follow the rituals and all the followers will have no credible justification. The ritual will die eventually. Not that it is bad, just that all the practices will soon become extinct (both good and bad in the current context). Till then youth will be wasting their time trying to chase the allusive cats to tie to the pillars. Meanwhile, business savvy people will mint millions creating various forms of cats.
Hats off to Hallmarks of the world.
Now, that is an interesting (millions of dollars worth) idea.
Like all other customs/beliefs, here also people are following it to the letter, rather than to the spirit.
Let me explain my self. What is better than a story to make things clear. So, here it goes.
Once upon a time, in rural India, there used to be a priest who wais highly religious (I mean he used to perform all the rituals religiously – pun intended). Every morning, he used to pray to God and offer food (“Prasadaa”, as they call it in Sanskrit) to God. There used to be a cat on the premises and it always used to interfere (as milk is one of the offerings). So, before he started his ritual offering, he used to tie the cat to one of the temple pillars, and go inside the sanctum sanctorum and finish the offering, open the doors and light the camphor, go home and have lunch. Every day his teenage son used to observe this routine. One day the priest had to go out of town on urgent work. He asked his son to offer Prasada to God that day. So, the son went to the temple, tied the cat, closesd the doors, after a while opened the doors and lit camphor, and then went home for lunch. His mother, meanwhile, was busy preparing Prasadaa. The son told the stunned mother that Prsadaa offering is complete.
Now, like the youth of today, the son was just following the ritual to the letter and not in spirit. Pretty soon, the original context and spirit will be forgotten. And then a wise group crops up and questions the need to follow the rituals and all the followers will have no credible justification. The ritual will die eventually. Not that it is bad, just that all the practices will soon become extinct (both good and bad in the current context). Till then youth will be wasting their time trying to chase the allusive cats to tie to the pillars. Meanwhile, business savvy people will mint millions creating various forms of cats.
Hats off to Hallmarks of the world.
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