Today was Ratha
Yatra, a Hindu festival originating from my state of Odisha that celebrates
the journey that the main deities of Puri Jagannath temple—Jagannath,
Balabhadra, Subhadra and Sudarshana—undertake every year. Also known as the Car
Festival or the Chariot Festival, the festival is now observed across all major
cities of the world.
For those who are unfamiliar with the Ratha Yatra of Lord Jagannath, you must have
used or at least heard of the English word 'juggernaut' which refers to any
huge, powerful and overwhelming force. This term came about when the British witnessed
the Ratha Yatra for the first time in the 18th century
and were completely awed by the size and grandness of the chariots being pulled
by what often seems like an ocean of people.
There are many beautiful mythological and historical
stories associated with Puri's Ratha
Yatra, but I won't touch upon them in this article. Instead, I would like
to highlight three psycho-spiritual lessons we can all take from this festival.
As I have been researching and reflecting on different evidence-based
approaches for wellbeing, I am amazed at how much wisdom lies behind many Hindu
festivals and how we can literally transform our lives if we celebrate these
festivals a little more mindfully.
1) Develop of a strong and healthy body: You may be wondering, “What does the Ratha Yatra have
to do with a strong body?” No, I am not referring to the physical strength you
would need to pull the ropes of the ratha,
although that would certainly be very helpful. The importance of a strong and
healthy body can be understood if we read the Katha Upanishad, which describes ratha (Sanskrit for a chariot) to be
symbolic of the physical body. So the ratha
yatra that we celebrate every
year is essentially symbolic of our life's journey (yatra is a Sanskrit word for journey). We
all want our life's journey to be a happy one. Does the ratha yatra give us any hints about how we can
achieve this objective? Yes, have a strong and healthy body. According to yogic
literature, the biggest impediment to happiness is a sick body. So it is very
important to develop a strong and healthy body, the exact same way that so much
of attention is paid every year to building strong rathas (chariots). Diseased and weak rathas (and bodies) cannot
withstand the stress of the ratha
yatra (life's journey).
2) Do not identify with the body: While a strong and healthy body helps us live a happy life,
it is also important to remember that we are not our body. Again, according to
Katha Upanishad, our true self is the Atma (pure consciousness) and the body
is just the ratha (or the vehicle) that the Atma uses to complete the journey of
life. This aspect is sometimes described through the quote, "We are not
physical beings having spiritual experiences. We are spiritual beings having
physical experiences." The ephemeral nature of our bodies is beautifully
represented in the cyclical nature of the ratha
yatra: each year new rathas carry the deities from the
Jagannath Temple to the Gundicha Temple and back, after which the rathas are discarded. Our life's journey is
similarly cyclical, where we take up a physical body in one life, then discard
it at the time of death, before moving on to another body for another cycle of
life. Now the philosophical implications of this cyclical nature of life is
enormous that is beyond the scope of this blog post, but from a very practical
point of view, it means that most of our suffering is caused because we
identify too strongly with our body. It is no wonder then that the most
powerful meditation techniques (in terms of their efficacy on mental wellbeing)
are all geared towards creating a distance between our self and our body. If
you do not know how to meditate, it is worth your time to learn it, since it
has been consistently shown across numerous research studies to have a positive
impact on your wellbeing.
Nicely put Kuna bhaina. This is indeed wonderful piece of reading and an original one. Wonderful to see the connect. I will definitely share the link with few others. Super like.
ReplyDeleteThank you Subasish! Appreciate your kind words and thanks for sharing the article with others. That said, I must also say that ideas in the article are not entire original. As I mention in the article, they are all there in our Upanishads (and Gita). I just tried to relate those ideas with modern research findings.
DeleteIt's late finding this act. At least, it's a thing to be familiar with that there are such events exist. I agree with your Blog and I will be back to inspect it more in the future so please keep up your act. Ratha Yatra rath yatra wishes
DeleteAt long last, happiness being a perspective would be completely abstract and would bring out extraordinary emotional responses. For example, somebody chuckles on hearing a joke and feel happy about it and another person would be mocking or may not feel a similar degree of fervor.סיינטולוגיה
ReplyDelete