A Nepali idiom for ritual absurdity is biralo bandhney, or "tying the cat". It tells the story of a Brahmin performing the shraddha ceremony for his departed ancestor tying the family cat to a post so that it would not upset the ritual´s paraphernalia or pollute it. Years later, his grandsons, reconstructing the ritual from memory, remembered the tethered cat which they thought was an essential item of the ceremony. By this time, the family had no cat, so one was brought from a neighbour and tied to a post for the duration of the ceremony. A practical step by a Brahmin ancestor of yore thus got converted into a silly ritual when sundry cats were ritually collared by his descendants while establishing communion with the departed.
Today, Hindus all over the Subcontinent have to come to terms with many such ritual relics that are caricatures of ancient customs, their rationale long lost, and their accompanying Sanskrit liturgy wholly incomprehensible to the average practitioner.
If Hinduism were only a collection of absurd rituals and social evils, it would be easy to discard it and shop around for some other source of spiritual sustenance. However, Hindu tradition is also rich in methods and philosophy developed by mystics of varied callings, individuals who rejected society in their search for truth. These mystics and philosophers have brought forth a veritable supermarket of spiritual patrimony which the modem Hindu is proud to own. There is everything for everyone—Vedanta for the rational, Tantra and the yogas for the experimental, scores of Bhakti cults for the emotional, and even theologically neutral "non-attached" work or Karma Yoga for the practical agnostic. In fact, for an inquisitive modern Hindu, delving into these theological aspects is at first bewildering, then benumbing and, if that stage is passed, an all-consuming, life-long love affair.
100,000 Failures