The Economics of Religion

[TTCUSM]

Namaste Everyone,

Surely you remember the increase in food prices that took place around 2 years ago (in spring 2008)? The price of everything from rice to lentils to milk suddenly skyrocketed. And this is having an impact on the performance of certain Hindu rituals in India:

NEW DELHI -- Every morning, Hindu devotees haul buckets of fresh, creamy milk into this neighborhood temple, then close their eyes and bow in prayer as the milk is used to bathe a Hindu deity. At the foot of the statue, they leave small baskets of bananas, coconuts, incense sticks and marigolds. But recently, Ram Gopal Atrey, the head priest at Prachin Hanuman Mandir, noticed donations thinning for the morning prayers. He knew exactly why: inflation.
With prices soaring for staples such as cooking oils, wheat, lentils, milk and rice across the globe, priests like Atrey say they are seeing the consequences in their neighborhood temples, where even the poorest of the poor have long made donations to honor their faith.
"But today the common man is tortured by the increases in prices," Atrey lamented during one early morning prayer, or puja, adding that donations of milk were down by as much as 50 percent. He had recently met with colleagues from other temples, along with imams from local mosques, who reported similar experiences. "If poor people don't even have enough for bread, how will they donate milk to the gods?"

This leads to a few really interesting questions.
Aren't we wasting precious food and milk by performing these pujas and abhishekams?
I asked my dad about this, and he just told me "You can't solve all the world's problems."

 

[ByeRaagi Rayaprolu]

Namaste..this is a sound suggestion to all idol worshippers to ponder over such wastage of food while we can still find needy people around. All the food offered to gods' idols shud be neatly collected back n redistributed among the deserving..u need not POUR everything ON the gods..isn't this only a symbolic offering to invoke the inner offering of one's own self ?

i believe that a hindu house holder shud feed the ancestors, gods, guests & beggars, animals n birds etc..before he and his family takes food. feed the first two symbolically (with a li'l portion of all the food) and feed the remnant as a Prasaadam to the real eaters.. no much food was/is intended to be wasted in these simple daily "yajnya/bali"s,help: with exact terms plzzz) And about the bigger Yajnyas which run 4 days together, incessant down pour of edibles in to the Sacred Fires, well, they've indeed become rare..

 

[Onkara]

I would like to hear more from your dad

The idea is that to give what is dear to us in order to demonstrate (to ourselves and God) that we are humble. When the milk is more important than our humility then we have lost contact with our spiritual self. The milk is material, it is prakriti, it was not "ours" to begin with and the sacrifice is a reminder of that (gratitude).

There is no indication that sacrifice should be an austerity or lack humanity or logic. One should give to a hungry child first, as a child also contains that very same Atman-Brahman which the sacrifice serves to remind us of.

I think you dad sums it up well. Once we recognise that we have limits (in our ability to save the world), we become grateful and humble for what little we can share.

 

[zenzero]

Friend TTCUSM,

The Economics of Religion

Prices of commodities has nothing to do with religion neither are rituals which you have mentioned.
However even if they were of any concern indirectly for living here are two stanzas from Gita Saar:

जो हुअा, वह अच्छा हुअा, जो हो रहा है, वह अच्छा हो रहा है, जो होगा, वह भी अच्छा ही होगा। तुम भूत का पश्चाताप न करो। भविष्य की चिन्ता न करो। वर्तमान चल रहा हैI

तुम्हारा क्या गया, जो तुम रोते हो? तुम क्या लाए थे, जो तुमने खो दिया? तुमने क्या पैदा किया था, जो नाश हो गया? न तुम कुछ लेकर अाए, जो लिया यहीं से लिया। जो दिया, यहीं पर दिया। जो लिया, इसी (भगवा&#2344 से लिया। जो दिया, इसी को दिया।

Meaning whatever is happening is happening for the good [in what way? introspect/meditate on it]. You are not brought anything nor giving anything [even as offerings to gods] Meaning you have not brought any money to buy or offer anything. Further introspection; one need not need to offer anything just his *ego* is enough.

Love & rgds

 

[Onkara]

Friend TTCUSM,


Prices of commodities has nothing to do with religion neither are rituals which you have mentioned.
However even if they were of any concern indirectly for living here are two stanzas from Gita Saar:





Meaning whatever is happening is happening for the good [in what way? introspect/meditate on it]. You are not brought anything nor giving anything [even as offerings to gods] Meaning you have not brought any money to buy or offer anything. Further introspection; one need not need to offer anything just his *ego* is enough.

Love & rgds

Good post Mr Z
The largest sacrifice is one's ego, what else is there to give after that?! The riddle of religion or life is to understand "who gives what to whom" hahaha