Teachings vs. Rituals

Blog XVIII of Thirty Days – Thirty Blogs series

Any religion consists of a set of teachings and a set of rituals. While the teachings are THE most important thing in any religion, rituals are the means of achieving/assimilating those teachings.

Teachings are the very crux of any religion. In any religion an enlightened/sacred  person is one who has understood it. These teachings represent the very reason for existence of any religion i.e. to explain one's existence and also to guide one's actions to inculcate the sense of right and wrong. These teachings are highly static in nature in the sense that they are rarely changed if ever over the religion's history.

Rituals on the other hand are very dynamic and change often over a period of time. Rituals are built in for the benefit of huge masses not all of whom are fit enough to acquire the teachings. Fitness here could refer to wisdom, patience, judgement; qualities which are necessary to realise the essence and relevance of these teachings. Not surprisingly though, these rituals are taken to be more important than the teachings by many people because for them that is much more comprehensible and simpler to do. For ex. it is easier and much simpler for Buddhist people to rotate the khor (prayer wheels) with Buddhist mantra on it as a ritual. But it is only few wise people who go on to realise the meaning of the very deep “Om mani padme hum”.

Therein lies an irony for any religion, it cannot expect all of its followers to fully understand the teachings and hence has to come up with certain rituals in keeping with contemporary cultural beliefs to carry their legacy forward. I am sure the person who came up with Sati ritual did it because it conformed to then prevalent male-dominating societal structure. Bible was not written by Jesus Christ but by a Christian committee that wanted to have a codex to pass on over the generations. Vedas represent a similar intent by Aryans who performed sacrificial rituals while chanting Vedic hymns. Today these rituals are performed symbolically as animal sacrifice is socially taboo. Prophet Mohammad declared Kaaba to be the most sacred place because that was where the initial battles were fought between earliest Islamic followers and other tribal religions and retaining control over that place was essential for Islamism then.

So to reiterate, rituals are important only in that they are tools to attain pure teachings. But it is important to remember that it is the teachings that embody a religion. That is why a person can not follow rituals and still end up understanding the essence of any religion. Unfortunately, many religious heads and organisations could take offense at such a description for any religion but I am sure that people who followed this model must have been considered worthy of being disciples by the very founders of these religions.

DISCLAIMER: Above are my personal thoughts on what is the essence of any religion. Examples have been presented in support of central argument and disrespect to any religion/scripture is purely unintended.