Rituals and Karma - The Beautiful Connection!🔗

I will now explain how karma and rituals are directly connected.

There are three types of karma. I will tell you about the three kinds of karma, and how performing rituals can directly eliminate the negative influence of these karma. You can come out of them with just this understanding that I am going to give you.

Rituals are very powerful tools. They are powerful techniques. Many people ask me, ‘You are enlightened. Why should you then perform rituals?’ I tell them, ‘Because I am enlightened, I am teaching people exactly why and how to perform rituals!’ Enlightened beings do not need any rituals for themselves.

Let me tell you a small story:

A man went to a hotel and started eating idlis. (a South Indian dish made of steamed rice flour) He ate eight idlis, and after the ninth idli his hunger settled. The waiter came and gave him the bill for nine idlis. The man said, 'What is this? I will pay only for one idli - the ninth idli which put my hunger off! The first eight idlis did not do the job. Only the ninth one did the job of satisfying my hunger. So, I will pay only for that idli!'

Doesn't the man's argument sound weird? This is exactly what we do in life also. People who reject rituals are actually rejecting the first eight idlis. People who think that rituals are a waste and that they can go straightaway to meditation and spiritual experiences, are doing nothing but rejecting the first eight idlis.

Understand, the ninth idli worked because of the first eight idlis. If the man had not eaten the first eight idlis, the ninth idli would not have appeased his hunger. So, your meditation will work because of your having gone through ritual worship sincerely! If you reject all these preliminary things and think that you can directly eat the ninth idli, will it ever happen? Will your hunger ever get satisfied?

Whoever thinks that they can directly eat the ninth idli will simply miss out on the whole experience. They will eat just the ninth idli and then will be sitting and starving. Not only that, because they did not do things in the proper way, they will not experience what they should have experienced, and will think, 'Maybe this is all that the experience is.' Such people are called Vedantis - the so called meditators. If you observe them, you will see that there is no sign of joy on their faces. They will appear perpetually depressed, as though they were missing something.

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa beautifully says, 'As long as you think you have a body, you will be able to relate to the cosmic energy only through another body.' Only when you lose your body consciousness, can you see the Divine also as formless. Until that happens, you need some form, some reminding rituals, some deities to worship.

You see: in my first three years of the mission, from 2003 to 2006, I never gave any ritual along with meditation. Only in 2006, did I add the Guru Puja (ritualistic offering to the guru) to the 'everyday' meditation, Nithya Dhyaan.

From 2003 to 2005, only 20% to 30% of the people who were initiated into meditation continued the meditation for at least three months. After three months, they too stopped meditating!

However, now, after I added the Guru Puja to Nithya Dhyaan, after it became more or less a ritual, more than 80% of who have taken initiation follow it! I did a statistical study and discovered this. So I think it is good to have a ritual along with meditation so that the regular habit of sitting and doing some sadhana, penance, is cultivated.

Otherwise, you will not do any penance regularly. The first day, you will think, 'Today my mother-in-law is here,' or 'I have too much work' and you will skip it. After two days, when your mother-in-law has gone or the work is done, you will think, 'Let me enjoy my vacation after saying goodbye to my mother-in-law. I don't want to do it today.' Or, if you are happy, you will think, 'Today I am happy, then why meditate?' Or if you are depressed, you will think, 'Today I am depressed. How can I focus on meditation?' Your mind tries to find some logic to skip meditation. But if it is made into a ritual, you will not find any logic to skip it. You will simply do it.

Now we will see how we go through the janana marana chakra: the cycle of life and death, and how these initiations and rituals can liberate us from it; how they can take us out of this cycle.