What Happen When Mean Becomes End
Nawaz
The topic what i have choosen for post has its vital significance in
our daily life. Worth reading and i will love to have your feed back
on it.
What Happen When Mean Becomes End:
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In spite of the emergence of sages, philosophers and prophets from
time to time bringing wisdom and divine revelations to the humanity,
earth has remained a troubled planet for its (now) six billion
inhabitants. Having made immense progress in knowledge, invention and
innovation, science and technology, we are all set to take routine
journeys to the moon and mars, hoping to colonize these distant
planets.
The explosion of Information Technology has promised and, in fact,
enabled us to have a life of uninterrupted leisure and convenience.
Above all, we have decoded the DNA and are on the threshold of
elimination of diseases through gene-modification. An exciting new
world-vision and some lucky ones amongst us are already there.
But there is jarring and discordant contradiction between the
'virtual' and the real world. Calamities, famine, disease and
pestilence are overtaking almost entire continents. AIDS, TB, Malaria,
and Cancer are but a few of the malaises the humanity is trapped
today. 4/5 th of the humanity are confronted with a dearth of the
basic needs of humanity such as feed, shelter and drinking water. The
political management governs countries on the basis of emotional
slogans and rhetoric of the past.
But what has gone wrong with the progress the man has made so far?
What was the MEAN for the progress and then what was the END ? The
significant cause is the wrong placement of the MEAN as the END in the
human endeavor. This does not click sound in the physical sciences.
But it plays havoc when it bobbles in the social sciences. Take the
example of RITUALS. These were the MEAN for the achievement of some
END . When these were transformed as END in themselves then what
emerged in the very concept of RITUALS? This is projected for the
consideration of the Internet tyros.
Rituals:-
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Look how RITUALS has had the emergence of a concept? Human beings
organize a great deal of their social interactions into formal
customary patterns. On meeting someone for the first time in the West,
for example, one goes through a formal set of exchanges of words and a
handshake. So Ritual is the set of formal customary practices related
to religion. For the followers of a religion, however, ritual is, like
scripture, a hierophany : it is the appearance of the sacred. Through
the performance of the ritual, the sacred was to be evoked. The ritual
may include reading or chanting from scripture, hymns, certain
actions, certain sounds (such as gongs, cymbals and bells), certain
smells (such as incense), religious symbols and music, all were to
contribute towards the evocation of the sacred. Does it invoke what it
was purported to be invoked?
Go ahead. Ritual has probably become the most common source of
religious experience for the majority of people. Indeed for many
people, ritual has become religion. For many Indians, Japanese
Shintoists and tribal peoples, religion consists almost exclusively of
various rituals (such as rites of passage and daily or seasonal
rituals). Although these rituals may imply certain beliefs, these tend
to be the interpretation of scholars and are not usually in the
consciousness of ordinary people when they participate in a ritual.
Ritual may be regarded as an important part of the knowledge that a
believer has about her or his religion. While cognitive knowledge may
give the individual the facts about a religion, ritual gives knowledge
of the 'feel' or 'milieu' of the religion; it conveys non-cognitive,
affective information (what some may call holistic knowledge). The
simple fact that one kneels before an icon of the Virgin Mary in some
facts of Christianity conveys a great deal more information about the
religion than hours of preaching or instruction would do. Attitudes
towards oneself, other people, and towards Ultimate Reality, are all
conveyed more directly and powerfully through ritual than by any other
means. Most importantly, ritual can itself be the source of the
central experience of religion. Whether the ritual is that of an
incense-filled church where the priest is changing the bread and wine
into the body and blood of Christ, or techniques of meditation that
lead to and altered state of consciousness, the result can be direct
experience of the sacred. To new converts, therefore, the learning of
ritual is just as important as the learning of facts about their new
religion. Ritual also reinforces the communal religious experience,
the feeling of group solidarity and unity and the sense of belonging
to something that is greater than the individuals who comprise it.
This was the concept meaning of the term RITUALS.
There are numerous forms of ritual: rites of purification,
regeneration, thanksgiving, self-denial, penance and propitiation. It
is difficult at times to differentiate religious ritual from magic.
Both imply a supra-natural process. Rituals are often rites of passage
(that is, related to the life-cycle: birth, puberty, marriage, death),
rites related to the calendar (weekly rituals, spring, harvest, winter
and New Year rituals), or the formal reenactment of a sacred story or
event. The END has lost its sight and the RITUALS per se have become
the END in itself.
Now this concept of RITUALS has transformed to be an END in itself. In
the world of religions 'worship as ritual', 'cymbals in churches as
rituals', 'prayer as rituals' and in Islam 'Salaat as ritual',
'fasting as ritual', 'Hajj as ritual', 'recitation as rirual': all
have lost the END for which these were to be performed. Pause and
reflect where we are today.
Source: http://www.parvez-video.com
Regards
Nawaz