I know that some people will already know/understand what i am writing here, but there are also others.
"worship" is just a word, what you should worship is the question, if it is god, what is god should be the question??. if belief in god is just the fear of the unknown and worshiping him for luck to overcome your anxiety problems, well then you need to grow up,(but that doesn't mean we can look down upon such people, we can only gently tingle their interest with rational questions).
Worshiping or reminding ourselves of nature and or forefathers & who discovered,fire,wheel,language,agriculture, etc etc.. then.. There is the beautiful sun raising everyday giving earth all its life energy, that everyone should worship..also as per evolution humans ate from forest and animals and we destoryed forest and killed animals for agriculture to grow(we are still doing that for living), so there is nothing wrong in respecting and revering and reminding ourselves us of some of these things. Worshiping our origins and what currently sustains us and stop us from becoming arrogant with your knowledge,power and strength is in my opinion Right.
"work is worship" and anyone who does not appreciate work, cannot/should not get respect in society as far as society goes there is nothing other than morally appropriate work. Women/men who worship their other halfs(in marriage) or honestly their relationship do so because they give them so much of what they badly need and (become dependent in the process, to the point where they can't imagine a life without them). Just like people used worship their kings, as they could not imagine/think a life without his protection and control and law and order.
I can understand if you u don't like the old rituals,(i also don't like a lot of them, idiotic brahmins say they should
not even transulate them into tamil that people can understand) but there are rituals even in work, there are rituals everywhere..I am against all rituals without a meaning/reasons, or doing them without a rational or psychological basis,even religious rituals for various events in human's life (birth,death,puberty,seemantham, marriage,etc) have psychological and moral importance,at least they had meaning in the past feudal world(it does not mean that world was totally good or bad).. it just means that in the new world, new scenarios, they may not be valid anymore,we need to transform these rituals. to social-economic and political settings..(there is ritual way in which even self-respect marriages, political meeting of DMK,ADMK etc have a pattern/rituals).You can do yoga in a ritual way or just watch your breath to calm down in anxiety,or anger or tune your mind in the morning for the day's work. you can be against all god based rituals, The only problem with Hinduism is all these psychological needs were inter woven with society in the name of Divine inspiration or god or the fear of the unknown,When fear starts ruling that is when, everything becomes a problem and people start using stuff and vested interest start, now that science has cleared us of a lot of doubts about ourselves, we need to change these systems.. as cultural practices with freedom to practice rituals, not imposed by the society, well there are so many conventions in sciences, we just need to be aware that these are conventions, but conventions are need, but with for creativity sake conventions should not become rigid.
There was a psychological need for god in the old society, for it to organize itself.. for order and preventing lawlessness etc etc...There was no police in India...before the Britishers..no big bureaucratic system..we had one of the richest thriving economy till about 1800. We also need to understand that India did not have renaissance, which gave birth to science., more liberal,critical and lateral thinking. we are going through a huge transition at very fast phase, with a huge population that is still rural. Apparently still there is huge need, as there is no escape or resuce that lot of people who are unable to change or be flexible or adapt to the changing senarios,people become cynical of the future and want to go back in time,which is imposible, so they escape into god/spiritual mysticism. One cannot deny that this is also good adaptation or a existential need. You cannot underestimate the courage needed to change our own ideologies,thought patterns or adopt new ways of thinking.
We have the basic human right to choose/reject what we deem you think is right/wrong or like/dislike.So no one can dictate terms to you, on what ever is legaly fine. In case of parents, close relatives it gets tricky,they get hurt and it hurts you back, So i just drill them with questions and when imposed on me, i do it as some plain favor, so that they don't sit and cry, but slowly but steadily they themselves have left me alone. I myself suffered some divine inspiration problems,during the process of rationalizing all the practices, So i can relate to people's problems in this adaptation and how difficult it is actually. Can you believe that a somebody who went upto phd in evolutionary biology giving up all that because christianity rejected it?.
Humans brain do need pattern to make things easy for them in life, but we also need some chaos, and questioning all sorts of patterns,critically frequently, laterally and be open to change and adapt ourselves..In there lies our salvation and further evolution, to know more about everything..still be humble and patient.so that we evolve together..and not destroy each other, hurt sentiments or destory everything in arrogance of our knowledge,power,technology or even apparent divine inspirations. Not denying that you can also learn a lot from them in the process, as each human being is special and has adapted and is adapting himself in his mind to live,everyday. More often than not,there is this learned helplessness also, where you know you need to change/adapt but are still stuck in patterns of thinking and are unable to change yourself. This is actually quite hard to deal with, as you keep failing at something many times, you either give-up or something become absolutely necessarily and you don't adapt your thinking to that,as it can lead to depression(quite a painful thing), then you become a misfit, hence not giving-up,courage and determination become virtues and have to be worshiped? don't they? and Hero's who epitomize these virtues have to be worshiped don't they?
