Happy Raksha Bandhan & Narali Purnima

It is said that the festival gained popularity after Rani Karnavati, the widowed queen of Chittor, sent a Rakhi to Mughal emperor Humayun when she was in need of his help. It is also believed that Draupadi tied Rakhi to Lord Krishna. Both were historical and inspiring but by mistake it is made a tradition is wrong one.

The festival of Raksha Bandhan is observed as a symbol of duty between brothers and sisters. The occasion is meant to celebrate any type of brother-sister relationship between men and women who may not be biologically related.

On this day, a sister ties a Rakhi around the wrist of her brother in order to pray for his prosperity, health and well-being. The brother in return offers a gifts and promises to protect his sister from any harm and under every circumstance. The festival is also celebrated between brother-sister belonging to distant family members, relatives or cousins.

Usually all over India, Raksha bandhan is called as Rakhi but in some places, this eve has other names and also other methods of celebration. As In South India this festival is called as Upakarma Or Avani Avittam, in which they believe that by changing Janeu on that day, they become safe from all wrong works done in the previous year. In Chhattisgarh (Madhya Pradesh), it is called as Kajari Purnima. And in western India, in Goa and Maharashtra, it is Called as "Narali Purnima" or Nariyal Purnima, in which people worship God Varuna (God of the Sea) and start fishing next . Also it is called Pavitropna in Gujarat and they all worship lord Shiva on that day.

But all these practices are useless according to me, as in this immortal world there is no one safe, either boy or girl. No matter we do any worship of any god in any way, or no matter we tie any protecting band to anyone, if the practise we are doing is against our scriptures and holy books then it is of no use. And as we see that tying Rakhi or worshiping any god in the way we do is not mentioned anywhere in our holy books. So these things can never help us out in our safety.

We can only be protected by the Supreme God named Kabir, which is proved in our vedas and Scriptures. It is given in Atharva Ved Kand no. 4 Anuvaaks no. 1 Mantra no. 7 that Kabir is god, who has done all the creation. Saint Rampalji Maharaj is the only Saint who is explaining this precious spiritual knowledge to us through his pious speeches. Only by doing scripture-based worship of Lord Kabir which Saint Rampalji Maharaj taught to us, we can live a peaceful, happy and safe life ahead. And also Saint Rampalji Maharaj gaurantees to provide complete salvation after death.

In Tamil Nadu,there is also another way to celebrate this festival.This is the most interesting part of the festival. Like in Raksha Bandhan, we too prepare meal with a wide variety of unique rice dishes that no one would have hard of. But these are made of the previous day's lunch. Sorry if you thought they were different types of biryani, pulao and fried rice. On the contrary,these variety rice are as per the below mentioned in bullet points: Previous day's left over sweet Pongal (specially made for lunch) Curd rice with the same rice as below Kumkum rice( vermilion rice)..Wait,this is not delicious..it's just previous day's lunch mixed with vermilion. Turmeric rice,same as the above point, vermilion to be substituted by turmeric. And Of course, white rice, the same used in the previous four points. In Maharashtra, they prepare sweet rice with fresh coconut and jaggery as well as karanji made of maida flour covering and inside coconut and jaggery mixture cooked together just like inside Modak.

Now our role and responsibility lies in waking up early in the morning (so early that even the moon has not set) and to take head shower(consider yourself lucky if you have a heater at home and the human alarm(your mom) which wakes up more earlier {so early that the moon would have just settled in the sky} to switch on the heater before giving you a wake up call). In the next step,we take a small leaf (I presume, it's turmeric plant leaf,still not sure) and keep it in the prescribed direction(only mom has an idea) and keep small balls of the above previous day's cooked lunch,processed over dinner( I mean just reserved for today) for today's breakfast,again in prescribed order..

In the final step,we pray for our brothers and their well being and pay obeisances to sun god ,facing the east(the process could have been so tedious and lengthy that the moon would have set and the sun would have risen) Unlike Raksha Bandhan, we believe that the crows that come and eat the food, actually don't eat, but just deliver the food( act like Zomato or Swiggy guy). And despite of all the efforts we take,we only get 10 rupees from our brothers,after reminding them of all our tedious efforts..

My theory on Rakhsha bandhan is again - Our ancestors were super smart people who could look into future and had strategies that can't fail at all. Earlier days the transportation weren't this quick. It use to take days to reach out to other cities or months to other state. Cell phones or Landlines weren't invented. In this conditions how would you know if your sister/ Daughter was doing good and happy in her married life. That's where such festivals came in picture. On Rakhi the sister is suppose to come and tie Rakhi to the brother. The purpose solved was

She could come to her parents, stay with them where she can share her wellbeing. Can also recreate the bond with her siblings. It also made the brother feel responsible for taking care of her for lifetime as it's been a tread ( promise) of protection/ Rakhsha. She could have a gift chosen by the brother inculcated the feeling of sharing. The circle of rituals get completed on bhaiduj when brother visits her for lunch or dinner. Of what she serves, can be a declaration of how good financially her husband was doing. Interesting, isn't it. We are kept touchbased to our bondings by our rituals. Happy Raksha Bandhan and Narali Purnima