I remember my granny saying one thing: ‘a man who does not
respect festivals, loses his own respect.’ I never really understood why she
said this but now today I can connect to what she meant. We are social animals
and need to be connected to our roots. A human would definitely need company of
another human. I do understand that in India we are overloaded with festivals
but then we are also offloaded with some of the major lifestyle diseases like depression,
anxiety, stress and so on.
Have we ever pondered as to why we are healthier mentally
than those in the west? I thought of connecting some dots. Let me know if it
makes sense to you as well. Ever since I understood American or the British
economy, I found that those economies strive to make an individual self
sufficient. That is; if you do not have a job- you claim unemployment. If you
are retired, in Britain, you get pension. What all of this implies is that you
need not depend on some other HUMAN. To make it simpler, let me rephrase saying,
parents need not depend on kids and kids need not depend on parents. You don’t
need to depend on neighbors as a call to 911 is enough to get you out of any
difficulty. All this makes a human self sufficient but lonely.
Now tell me one thing, today you are working and you get
promoted, the first thing that comes to your mind is to share it with someone. But
in such economies what happens is that all you can share with are those
temporary friends that you work with. Because you have lost the touch of the
real ones as you no longer need them. Now can you call 911 and share your
happiness or can you claim it from the government? The answer is NO.
We cannot replace human relations with materials and those
who have tried to do it, have failed miserably. We have festivals in India so
that we get-together, talk to each other, share our joys and sorrows and learn
to grow. Even the delicious food that we eat also has a deep down reason. Ever
heard people talking about ‘comfort food’? Yes food does relax your brain. Our ancient
Rishis were very wise, they had thought of the stressful times and so designed
our festivals where in we make delicious festivities and relax our brain
indirectly. That is why we still don’t need a drink always to relax ourselves.What is God or spirituality? In the end it is our own connection with our soul and the supreme self. the festivals are nature's or GOD's way of keeping us healthy, rooted and bonded to each other.
Hence, the festivities are good occasionally, they are there to make us happy
mentally and be more charged up. We should thank our economy indirectly that we
are not yet so self sufficient or 911 dependent, that we are still connected to
humans and not technologies.
So let's enjoy the festivals with a large heart and yes do not
over indulge but little bit is needed and keeps us going as well…
