Blessings

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

We bow down before elders to seek their blessings. Parents almost in all cultures of the world teach their young ones to bow down before senior men and women to seek their blessings. People go to temples, churches to ask for divine blessings. Students, before examinations or job interviews bow down before pictures of deities in the puja room. Performers take bows of their audiences. Candidates seeking elections seek the blessings of the voters. Even the non- believers and agnostic candidates bow to the voters. Images of icons or sculpted deities are always in blessing postures. The Buddha whose message has nothing anthropomorphic in it, is painted in blessing forms. Men always seek the blessings of gods and men who are powerful. Learners seek blessings of their teachers. Gods never answer the bows of men but the elders and the powerful respond saying: may God bless you or ‘ rise and prosper’ or ‘live up to ripe old age’.

What is this blessing? A wish of another being for the well being of a person who shows respect! Touching the feet of senior persons is a cultural practice almost everywhere. A hug or a handshake also has some significance. It involves a touch, between two bodies. The inner significance, all agree to say, is the spiritual energies of two bodies fortify each other against divisive forces. Blessings whether formal or sincere convey good wishes. The cultural assumption is a human being is a spark of the Brahman. There is god in all human bodies. If someone seeks blessings by bowing down or by touching the feet, the god in him seeks inspiration from the other person, more experienced and more boiled in worldly ways. If he raises his hand in blessing a positive vibe flows. For this reason an elder never bows down to a person junior to him in years. 

This is definitely a healthy practice. It perpetuates the idea that man is divine and if he blesses another person with feelings of love, something good will happen to the younger person. This practice subscribes to the theory of man's divine origin. But in today's world such beliefs are on the decline. People who believe in these old values are called superstitious. Modern man discards the idea of divinity in man. A human being today is nothing more than a biological creature. At best an algorithm; a process or set of nerves- veins in a mould of flesh and bones following biological rules. Modern science has proven that joys, sorrows and even love are chemical reactions to situational stimuli. Hence respect for another man is always need based and the blessings of the other person is a formal response without any spiritual meaning. The more educated we are the more mechanical we become. Today even a namaskar is need based. Only a man in power, somebody who can do harm gets public respect. The chair or designation makes him respectable. The moment the chair is gone the crowd disappears and bows become 'hallow' or at best 'how do you do'.

Honour is no more , what Shakespeare's Prince Hal in the Henry plays said, 'a state of being'. It is now 'a state of having'. The Shakespearean insight into the nature of human culture is so far seeing that today we demonstrate it even in our homes. A poor father or an old man has no honour. He does not get the respect from his own children as his 'having' state is now been replaced by 'asking' for help. In rich and educated families too the young achievers have no respect for the old fossils. If you are old and no more useful or harmful you lose all your divinity. That is the reason why we refuse to pray to the Almighty in the schools or debate over the efficacy of Vande Mataram. Human rights too are a matter of debate. Faith is to be decided by the legal- judicial process of a country. Respect too:  must have legal sanctions: for the morals are now effete.

Rights -democratic and constitutional- are more important for us than the Right Path, Right Thinking etc. We do not accept the right of any God or Divine or Enlightened man to tell us what is Right. Well may be the classical values were wrong; but blessing a human being for his respectful recognition of divinity in another person was a godlike gesture. If created an atmosphere of moral well being. If today our media presents human depravity in multifarious, multitudinous forms, the reason is not far to seek. Man has lost his morals and with that his divinity. He is now a robot; And no one teaches a robot to seek blessings, Thank you and 'you're welcome' are enough to bless our mechanical existence.