Today
morning when returning from the swimming pool my son Pradhyum asked me a simple
question – Papa, why do we celebrate festivals?
I went into
philosophical mode and explained how festivals in the past were a way to
include everyone in the community and the things that matter in our lives
(cattle for shankranthi, colors for holi, lights for Diwali, tools for Ayudha
Pooja, sharing/ giving in Ramadan, etc) and also how food was an integral part
of these festivities. This ensured that the harvest of the season which was
important to consume reached even those who couldn’t afford it. It also meant
that people cleaned and painted their houses – so health was maintained in the
community.
I went on
to tell him how with time the importance of festivals evolved – like in the
Mughal invasion the need to feed everyone amidst the taxes and keep people
rooted to our culture to avoid coversions, to the British era where Ganesh
Pandals were used to communicate patriotic messages in the local language. I
lamented that these days with nuclear families people have become myopic and
it’s a show of pomp and wealth than the actual meaning of what it is supposed
to be. The community factor is almost gone but for very few festivals. And with
the modern era people celebrate more of those festivals at home that don’t need
anyone else to be involved and basically treat it as a holiday.
I was
worried if I told him something wring and checked if others share my views.
Below is what Sadguru has to say. Read on…
The
Importance of Indian Festivals – Making Life a Celebration!
Sadhguru
explains the importance of festivals in Indian culture, and how celebration can
be a passageway to the most profound aspects of life.
In the Indian
culture, there was a time when there used to be a festival every day of the
year – 365 festivals in a year – because a festival is a tool to bring life to
a state of exuberance and enthusiasm. That was the significance and importance
of festivals. The whole culture was in a state of celebration. If today was
ploughing day, it was a kind of celebration. Tomorrow was planting day, another
kind of celebration. Day after tomorrow was weeding, that was a celebration.
Harvesting, of course, is still a celebration. But in the last 400 or 500
years, poverty has come to our country, and we have not been able to celebrate
every day. People are satisfied if they just get some simple food to eat. So all
the festivals fell away and only 30 or 40 festivals remain. We are not even
able to celebrate those now because we have to go to the office or do something
else daily. So people usually celebrate only around 8 or 10 festivals annually.
Make life a
celebration
Nowadays,
unfortunately, a festival means they give you a holiday, and you wake up only
at twelve noon. Then you eat a lot and go for a movie or watch television at
home. It wasn’t like that earlier. A festival meant the whole town would gather
in a place and there would be a big celebration. A festival meant we got up at
four in the morning, and very actively, lots of things happened all over the
house.
To bring back
this culture in people, Isha celebrates four important festivals: Pongal or Makarasankranti,
Mahashivarathri, Dussehra and Diwali. If we don’t create something like this,
by the time the next generation comes, they will not know what a festival is.
They will just eat, sleep and grow up without concern for another human being.
All these aspects were brought into Indian culture just to keep a man active
and enthusiastic in so many ways. The idea behind this was to make our whole
life into a celebration.
The Importance
of festivals
If you
approach everything in a celebratory way, you learn to be non-serious about
life but absolutely involved. The problem with most human beings right now is,
if they think something is important, they will become dead serious about it.
If they think it is not so important, they will become lax about it – they
don’t show the necessary involvement. You know, in India when someone says, “He
is in a very serious condition,” that means his next step is you know where. A
lot of people are in a serious condition. There is only one thing that is going
to happen to them which is of any significance. The rest will bypass them
because with anything that they think is not serious, they are unable to show
involvement and dedication towards that. That is the whole problem. The
passage, the secret of life is to see everything with a non-serious eye, but be
absolutely involved – like a game. That is the reason the most profound aspects
of life are approached in a celebratory way, so that you don’t miss the point.
