What Are Rituals?

What are rituals? Are rituals the dead remains of our ancestors? There are many questions associated with it that has to be addressed. It is still intriguing to many, and it is. It is one among many questions that has no answers.

Ranita Sinha, Kolkata

It is said that the soul does not die. There is a strong belief in Hinduism that there is life after death. But Christianity does not believe in re-birth. All these are mere assumptions or it may be rightly denoted as belief. There were debates and will always be regarding the cycle of birth and death.

We Bishnupriya Manipuri community, being a conservative community, follow an elaborate ritual on anybody's death. With utmost care and devotion all the customs are performed so that the soul of the deceased person may rest in peace. On the 13th day of the death the 'Shradh Ceremony' takes place.

On the day of Shradh, in our Bishnupriya Manipuri community, early morning the ritual of "Sajya Katkorani" is performed. During this ritual all the necessary items a person need for his livelihood like- bed linen, clothes to wear, towel, shoes, umbrella, woolen clothes, kitchen utensils etc are offered with the hope that the deceased does not face any problem in his life after death.

Most of the people offer these things as it is a custom prevalent from days of yore. No body raises any questions regarding this. Everybody makes the offering as per their capacity. Some again believe that these are rituals made by the Brahmins, because they are the ultimate receiver of these offerings.

Whatever may be the reason, on the day of the shradh ceremony of my father-in-law, all the offerings were done on the 13th day as per rituals. The kirtan which usually takes place the same day was to take place the next day. So, after the ritual of "Sajya Katkorani" was complete, everybody was satisfied as everything went smoothly.

Next day at break of dawn, all the family members were ready to go to the village temple(Malthep), where all day the kirtan would take place. Just at that time one of my cousin sisters-in-law came running in. She asked if the day before the tooth powder(Dabur lal danth manjan my father-in-law usually used) was put along with the other materials during "sajya katkorai".

Everyone was wondering what she wanted to know. My mother-in-law by the moment realized that the tooth powder was not put with the offerings. But than she asked my sister-in-law if she knew why did not she tell before.

To this, my sister-in-law replied that she did not know anything about the things put in the offerings. She came to inquire about the tooth powder because her 'Kaka'(my father-in-law) came to her dreams and said that since the tooth powder was not there, he was not able to clean his teeth.

Everybody was shocked to hear this. On our way to the temple a tooth powder was bought and put with the other things. But it did not end here. On the 1st death anniversary popularly known as "somboshori" again some offerings like bed linen, clothes. towels etc were done.

This time on the day of "sombosori" of my father-in-law, utmost care was kept so that nothing get missed out. Every minute details were crossed checked and end of the day everything went smoothly.

But on the 3rd day of "somboshori" at around 8 o' clock in the morning there was a phone call from one of my husband's cousin sisters, who was not able to attend the ceremony and who stays at a far off village. She talked with my mother-in-law and said that she had my father-in-law in her dreams where he told her that since he was given only a pair of vests he was not able to change.

To the astonishment of all, it was true that only one pair of vests was given. Same day another pair was bought and put before the idols in the temple, with the hope that Baba would receive it. These two incidents were shocking for the whole family. There was one question in everybody's mind , why Baba did not come and tell it to anybody from the family. But there was no answer to this question.

After reading this some might think that these were co-incidents. But how can there be two co-incidences? Whatever may be the reason but it is sure that these incidents made me think that there might be something in the rituals performed. Before this, me too believed that since the rituals were made by our ancestors we are supposed to follow.

Also one question crops to my mind- " Is there really something after death?"