Rituals are Useless without Righteousness
Performing all kinds of rituals before launching spacecraft or any other projects is useless unless there is also righteousness.
The purpose of performing Vedic rituals is to thank God and please Him, but there must also be righteousness. The situation currently is that people perform rituals but are not righteous.
India recently launched a spacecraft for a mission to the moon. The Indian scientists involved in the project and general public performed all kinds of Vedic rituals before the launch.
The USA, Russia, and China have already successfully launched missions to the moon and space. They did not perform any Vedic rituals. So, performing Vedic rituals is not related to the success of a project. What is related to the success of a project is hard work and proper knowledge.
If by performing Vedic rituals there would be success, then India should be the topmost country in the world and companies like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Intel, and others would be of Indian origin with headquarters in India. But this is not the reality.
What Are Vedic Rituals?
The first three pillars of Sanatan-Dharma covers the righteousness actions that a Sanatani (Hindu) must take.
Truthfulness – Always speak the truth, never break vows, never mislead anyone, never betray anyone, always side with the truth, and stand up for the truth.
Compassion – Compassion for all living beings. Be kind to everyone, serve everyone, no abortion, save trees and plant new trees, save animals and their homes (keep land raw, and stop building everywhere).
Cleanliness – Keep yourself, the home, work areas, rivers, and streets clean.
The Reality In India
Lying and cheating is very common. Everywhere the trees are being destroyed to make way for cement (buildings). The animals are being killed and made homeless, their natural homeland is occupied by humans and being destroyed. There are dirty streets everywhere and people chew tobacco and spit everywhere. So many girls have been killed in the womb (abortion).
Even in places like Vrindavan, the gurus say things like “Vrindavan (this is about 3 hours from Delhi) is non-different from the spiritual world Goloka Vrindavan”. Firstly, this is nonsense.
- Is there trash in Goloka Vrindavan? There is certainly trash on the streets of Vrindavan.
- Today (18JUL2023), there is flooding in Vrindavan with snakes and crocodiles in the water. Is there flooding in Goloka Vrindavan? There are no snakes and crocodiles in Goloka Vrindavan.
- Vrindavan means “Jungle of Tulsi plants”, but today it’s covered with cement and hard to find Tulsi plants.
- The gurus will say one needs to have special eyes to see the real Vrindavan. This is complete nonsense, nobody can deny seeing trash, flooding, snakes, and crocodiles in Vrindavan.
There are thousands of gurus and their disciples performing all kinds of rituals in Vrindavan, but hardly anyone is doing anything to save Vrindavan. If just one guru appointed a few disciples to keep Vrindavan clean. The whole of Vrindavan would be kept clean and Radha Rani would be most pleased. But unfortunately, the so-called devotees will perform all kinds of rituals but not use common sense. Instead of doing parikrama, if people went to Vrindavan to clean and maintain trees. Radha Rani would be millions of times more pleased.
When the Moguls invaded India, about 1,200 years ago. The priests and gurus ran to the temples to perform rituals, thinking this will save them and India. They did not follow the righteousness path by acting based on the scriptural injunctions. The Bhagavad-Gita was spoken in India and the purpose was to get Arjuna to fight against the evil doers. Those who invade are called aggressors and the Vedic teaching is that aggressors must be stopped. Had the priests and gurus followed the Vedic scriptural injunctions, India would still be the most prosperous place on earth, as it was before the Moguls invaded. The biggest nonsense teaching which is infused into Hindus by ignorant gurus is that God is doing everything and this to people means do nothing. The truth is that God is not doing anything, He is just the witness, overseer, and permitter. It is up to us to live a righteous life, by taking the right actions and behaving properly based on the scriptural teachings. God oversees and sanctions the activities of the living beings based on the desires and deserves. If God were doing everything, then this world would be perfect and there would be no need for boundaries, police, military, lawyers, weapons, jails etc..
God is the cause of all causes in the sense that He causes based on the desires and deserves of the living beings. For example, we come to this material world from the spiritual world, due to our own desire and not because God caused it. Lord Krishna very much wants all souls to go back to the spiritual world and live in complete bliss, but unfortunately, we (the souls) want to lord it over and thus we came here to the material world to suffer and enjoy based on our own actions (karma). Eventually all souls come to their senses and engage in devotional service unto Lord Krishna and go back to the spiritual world, but for many this will be after millions of lifetimes.
In the spiritual world, nobody says “Have a good day”, because there is no future. Nobody says “How was your day”, because there is no past. When a soul in the spiritual world wants to think of the past and future, they come to the material world. The soul is the cause of the fall down from the spiritual world, and not God. The living being is the cause of its enjoyment and suffering.
On the planet of Goloka Vrindavan, which is situated in the spiritual world. There is no old age, no disease, no death, no anxiety, no trash, no open sewers, no bad smell, no corona, no mosquitos, no intense heat, no flooding, no pigs, no snakes, no crocodiles, no cheaters, and no liars.
The law of karma only applies to human beings, it does not apply to plants and animals. The souls in plant and animal bodies are on a fixed transmigration from one body to another through the 8 million species, before they again get a human birth. That’s why human birth is so rare and thus one should not waste this rare chance to become free from material existence and go back to the spiritual world by living a pious life in righteousness.
“Yet in this body there is another, a transcendental enjoyer, who is the Lord, the supreme proprietor, who exists as the overseer and permitter, and who is known as the Supersoul.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-Gita 13.23)
“I am the witness…” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-Gita 9.18)
Conclusion
Focus on being righteous and perform the Vedic rituals. This will please the demigods and God and success or prosperity will be assured based on the efforts.
Note: One should read the other writings on this site to get the full picture of all teachings with scriptural references. It’s not possible to include everything in one writing nor to keep repeating the scriptural references.