The Personal Choice of Ritual in Hinduism

Hinduism is often called a 'way of life' rather than a religion, because it gives a lot of choice to the devotee seeking to attain God. God can be approached and attained through several different ways and means - the choice of mode of attainment is left completely to the convenience, or 'ishta' of the devotee. The scriptures prescribe several different ways for the attainment of God. However, one need not have any intricate knowledge of the procedures described in the scriptures if he or she is intent on devotion to God. If the devotee desires, he can follow his own methodology for the purpose - the knowledge of scriptures is not essential; what matters more is the devotion and the will for the attainment of the absolute.

Take a person who is in deep devotion to God. He wants to worship God in an ardent manner, but does not have the intricate knowledge of the scriptures. And consider that he is living in a small village having some open space outside his house. The mode of displaying his affection to God makes itself visible to him if he is serious in his devotion. What he can do is to grow various kinds of beautiful flowers in the open land in front of his house. Once the flowers start blooming, he can make it a ritual to prepare a garland with those flowers and then decorate the idol of God everyday, either in his own house or in a nearby temple, with the garlanded flowers. Every single day, early in the morning, he can make it a practice to take bath so as to cleanse himself, and then pluck the flowers and prepare a beautiful garland out of those flowers. He can then decorate the idol of God with the garland so prepared. He can make it a permanent habit to do this everyday. From time to time, he can add more variety to the flowers he is garlanding by purchasing new varieties of flower plants and grow them. On festival occasions like Diwali or New Year, he can sew larger garlands with more variety of flowers so as to suit the grandness of the occasion. This activity then becomes his personal mode of engaging himself in devotion to God - it becomes a way of life for him, the path to salvation, irrespective of the knowledge of scriptures that he possesses.

This is not the only method; other methods of showing the devotion can also be chosen depending on the personal preference of the devotee. Ritualistic practices at a large number of ancient Indian temples have been started by devotees in this fashion. They have found personally fulfilling ways to show their devotion to God. And the rituals initiated by such devotees have become part of customs and traditions of those ancient shrines.

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