SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE OF BAKRA EID AS WELL AS BAKRA BALI INFRONT OF DEVI (MOTHER GODDESS)…ITS IMPORTANCE IN CURRENT TIMES

I feel lucky to have grown up into multi-cultural and multi religious environment as it has taught me many things and many times I see many similarities in basic intention of many rituals but many times we are not aware, do not pay attention to or put our ego ahead of everything and miss the main crux of the entire thing. Many times people do not take interest or even fear sometimes to look at other religions rituals and what good we can take from them.

Since childhood I am seeing these two rituals of giving bali (sacrificing) of bakra (male goat) infront of Devi (Mother Goddess) and Bakra Eid. Though I am not any religious head or follower of both these rituals, I feel there is a great spiritual side behind both these rituals and lets see what it is (There are and coud be man religious reasons for celebrating this but I am focusing on spiritual side)

Our ancestors were very wise and they just didn’t start any rituals just for the sake of starting, I find that they have considered upto great extent how human mind works, what kind of situations they face in their life, various natural cycles and how all can come together and celebrate this journey called life.

Just think why ancestors thought of giving sacrifice of Bakra only. There are so many animals on planet, why this particular animal is chosen? If you see, goats move in a herd. They are always in group and if you see most of the times they are moving in direction where herd is moving. Basically it is this herd mentality and you will never see that a goat or sheep separates from group and decides to move ahead alone. They become fearful under little bit of stress or threat and finally they may fall pray to predator. They cannot roar like a lion and face difficult situations. Little bit of adverse situation and you will see that all will start running around and they will chose the path which others have chosen, without thinking. Just observe and you will see this fact. In fact look at the ones which are in the middle of herd. They have absolutely no clue where they are heading and what is in store for them. I am trying to stress this herd mentality and fear of this animal as both these attitudes go hand in hand.

Both these herd mentality and fear are there in humans as well and I feel this is the most appropriate time to highlight how it is working and people are succumbing to it and bringing great harm/loss to themselves, society and nation. Herd mentality of humans is nothing but without courage, out of fear they do what others are doing. Just copy or move along with masses while taking decisions of your life and look at the few situations how it has harmed and is actually harming, infact from childhood many of us are doing this…

• Just because media/builders creates environment that all are buying flats, houses and rates are going to go up, many of us rushed to buy bought & invested in many flats. Many have taken big loans and now scratching heads for its repayment….herd mentality…


• Look at students….if 4-5 of them are studying together then while studying many times they look at each others progress…If somebody had progressed more then they become fearful and panic, then they understand or not they try to finish at the same speed as others…herd mentality..


• While taking admissions to various graduation, post-graduation courses, students look at others. what others are doing, in which direction others are moving. If mob is moving towards engineering then take it, Information technology then move there. Without thinking ones own capability, practical situation, they move in this herd mentality…


• Just because stock markets are moving up, others are investing in it and if you don’t then you will be left behind, without knowledge, without thinking, many start investing. Listening to any crap recommendation people put any amount of money and lose it! Stock market crash of 2008-09 is simple of example of this and I have seen many who were just rushing to make money…herd mentality…


• These days if you read news on websites of these news papers or news channels then many times you will see news like this “So and so Photo of so and so actress or Video has went viral”. Now many click on it just because it has gone viral and with these clicks it actually goes viral!...herd mentality…these news people know this and deliberately they put news as “So and so thing has gone viral…”


• Somebody comes and tells people that I will double your money in next 1 or 2 years or you create chain of members and you will get so and so money. They give examples of other people who have invested, who are making money. Many feel secure sighting others investment and they also invest in it. Later on when it turns out to be a Ponzi scheme, all people lose money!...herd mentality…


• Another simple example, if you are going to buy vegetables, fruits in market and if there are 10 people sitting there, you will observe that shop where there is little rush people first go there and buy there..


• Many are succumbing to anxiety created & marketing done for new launches of cellular phones, people rush to buy as whole world is running to buy those and people end up spending huge amount of money. Just check, these phone companies are now having such big valuation that they can buy some country!...its due to this herd mentality…


• Just because some movie shows some new style of clothing, many run to buy them. Infact you will be amazed to see how few underwear brands got popularity. Lead actor used to show elastic of his brand above his jeans and many started using that… Imagine movies which are mostly based on fake, hypothetical stories and are largely based on imagination of some director or based on propaganda of producer, are ruling life of people…


• Some advertisement on TV shows that most of dentists recommend our toothpaste and many start buying that…herd mentality…rather than driven by one’s own intellect, knowledge, experience, how these advertisements are driving people. If you want to see how people succumb to advertisements & marketing, visit their bathroom once and you will see 2-3 types of shampoos, 2-3 types of conditioners, faces wash, hair creams, sun creams, cold creams, various soaps and what not…Check once on how many people these products have actually worked, you will find none and people are wasting lot of money. Infact they are filled with so many harmful chemicals which are going inside your body through your skin.


• Private universities publish their various research and people believe it and start following/behaving like that as many times their finding are presented in percentages Ex- Research suggest if people don’t use ground nut oil then heart attack % reduces by 50%. Now without checking facts many started using palm oil. Now many scientists tell that ground nut oil is best. In this process many farmers lost money making crop called groundnut and few greedy ones made money. One ridiculous research I came across – “If husband and wife together drink liquor then they are more happy”. You will see many such stupid researches in media around you. These are driven purely for increasing demand of particular products and flourishing few businesses.


• Propaganda was driven that chemical pesticides help in producing more crop. Many farmers succumbed to this so called green revolution. Without checking facts many have used these and polluted their land. These pesticides are resulting in so many severe diseases to humans and many times I feel more than green revolution, it is cancer revolution.


• Media is making people fearful and coward by showing only negative news. Rarely we see any positive or good news in newspapers or news channels. This is creating fear psychosis in people and people fear to raise their voice against injustice.


• If news channels show that, any saint has done some wrong thing then without verifying real facts just because all are blaming saint, people also start blaming them. In India one saint was accused of murder and media people showed that news for more than 2000 hours and people immediately made him demon and people forgot that it was accusation and not verdict of court. He was harassed for nine years but finally it got proved that he did nothing and he is innocent. This news media showed for hardly for eight minutes. Despite of this example, people still get driven by herd mentality. Even today some accusation on any saint and you will see tsunami of reactions. Many are just cursing because others are cursing.


• Just because actor/hero & actress is drinking liquor or smoking, many yougnsters start doing same thinking it is cool thing to do. If few friends are doing party and few of them are drinking alcohol or smoking then you will observe that many non-drinkers and non-smokers succumb into it and they also begin, very few stand out and say I will not!

There are many more such examples and basic intention of highlighting these is to portray harm which we are causing in this herd mentality. We need to sacrifice this herd mentality and emerge as true lion in our life. Even today in rural parts of india, if some child becomes very fearful then people say “once sacrifice bakra in front of mother goddess”. Mother goddess symbolizes fearlessness, energy & activism. You sacrifice your fear & herd mentality to her and emerge fearless, filled with energy. Henceforth lets sacrifice our herd mentality, fear & emerge as lion to serve our country. This Bakra Eid sacrifice these two things and emerge as lion to serve your  family, society and country. Many people debate whether to give bali of actual animal in rituals - then sentiments of people are attached to it since many years people are following it. My personal opinion and heart tells that not to kill animal physically for rituals (for eating meat is different and for rituals different) but various religious heads can sit together, ponder and decide with people what is best for all but know one thing for sure that country is waiting for many lions!