Should that flower die for me..

@vandana7 (98527)
India
August 27, 2012 7:45am CST
I know you all never thought of this.. And tomorrow I am going on pilgrimage ..and I will be offering flowers to god.. As is done out here, and since I am accompanying one of my close friends, she will ensure that I do it. :) Now, this thought always nagged me. We have festivals, our watchman goes out brings in some leaves of the trees and I hang it on my door front. I stopped that..once the thought came..feel how can something good happen to me, if I kill something beautiful god created. I can understand if that flower or fruit is needed on my dining table. Killing and eating is "allowed" naturally..right? Though I wouldnt kill animals for it.. I can understand if I accidentally trample some plants and cause their demise.. I had no choice and I did it innocently.. But ..to pray to god, do I pick from his garden and offer? Do I kill from his garden and offer? Do I sniff life out of that flower and offer, and feel mighty great about it? I also dont use flowers on my head ..much as I like them..I dont get to see them anyway because they are at the back..others get the pleasure of seeing them..and I am reduced to being walky talky flower pot.. So now..when I look at my soap and my powder and my shampoo and deo and hair oil, all of which may have extracts of some flower..I feel like a hypocrite..I am hardly going to leave these!!! Your call..
1 person likes this
6 responses
• India
28 Aug 12
Hello my friend vandana7 Ji, Well, if your policy is followed and implemented in letter and spirit, then why God has created many things around, starting with birth of a child, where many things are needed for baby to servive , then why to trouble those items. In case of flowers, they are meant for offering to God and on many other occasions, I would like to bring some epic story, while construction SETU-BANDH for crossing sea by Lord rama and his wild army, stones were inscrbed with 'rama' and tehy would then float on water, lastly bridge was made and last stone wept as it could not serve the very purpose as being stone, Lord Rama promised stone taht it would be saviour in his next YUG 'DWAPAR' when he liofted same mountain and saved all people from anger of Indra (Lord Krishna). So God has created the things around for their use. Let's remain positive at all fronts in our thinking. May God bless You and have a great time
• India
2 Sep 12
Hello my friend vandana7 Ji, Well, I think looking after parents is moral duty of everyone, recently, it has become land laws as well. Offering of flowers to Almighty has been inheritance since ages. Being North indian, and having association with South for more than 45 yrs now, I have observed that type and colors used on different occasions are also different. i have not found Merrygold being used here. I have attended many south Indian wedding ceremonies and observed very keenly, that Bride uses different colors of flowers on different occasion. I feel Flowers play an integaral part of all our ceremonies good OR bad. We can not part away with flowers. May God bless You and have a great time
@vandana7 (98527)
• India
2 Sep 12
Yes, marigold strangely receives step motherly treatment in the South..lol But other members of compositae family are used in abundance. As I was mentioning elsewhere..they use only those flowers that can attract insects. So perhaps, the object was to reduce insect population by creating such rituals. They didnt have insecticides. So they chose to pluck the flower before it bloomed fully so that neither the scent nor the honey could draw in the insects, and our oil lamps (diyas) and incense sticks also kept the insects away. Effectively, no mosquitoes, no fleas, no flies, and no diseases. It may have been a clever way to reduce diseases in olden days. I do try to decipher such things MGB. :) I want to accept god logically and simply and not with things that dont make sense to me. So I am just doing for me..what shall I say cleaning the dust on the mirror? :)
1 person likes this
@vandana7 (98527)
• India
1 Sep 12
Hi maygodblessu..:) May be I am in unchartered territory. :) Lets look at it all in miniature scale. My parents created me? So do they expect me to offer something to them? Its a different issue that I need to look after them because that is my duty. God creates our parents and indirectly us, but he does not need anybody to look after him, after all, he is god and he has many powers. Given this scenario, where do flowers step in? I dont use flowers to please my parents, god does not need flowers to be pleased. Perhaps, in olden days they had no scents and perfumes, so flowers were the only way to decorate temples. They have lost that much of significance since then because now we have many other ways to keep god comfortable, and happy, dont you think? :)
1 person likes this
@jennyze (7029)
• Indonesia
28 Aug 12
Well, Hindu people in Bali believes that those flowers and animals killed for the praying purposes are happy cause they would come back to the world with a higher rank or something... you know that Balinese believes when a person is doing a very bad and unforgivable deed during his lifetime, that person will comeback to the world as an animal...
@vandana7 (98527)
• India
28 Aug 12
I dont see how such things can happen jenn. :( I am going to the temple ..no doubt..and in the past..when I was not this "enlightened" or "de-enlightened" lol it was easy to do that..but now I lack the conviction to offer that flower or even leaf without feeling like a murderor. May be I am growing senile..:(
@vandana7 (98527)
• India
28 Aug 12
You know Jenn.. I do think in the past..centuries ago..perhaps the custom to cull animals was started to prevent infections..like how we kill when there is mad cow disease. I am just speculating here.. So when people would feel hesitant to kill those cows and animals..such superstition was linked to the culling process ..which made it easier for people to do that. Now, the custom has lost its relevance...cant we think it all up and be more human to our fellow animals and plants? :( I really dont know which god will be pleased to see its creation being mutilated like that..:(
@jennyze (7029)
• Indonesia
28 Aug 12
I don't know the difference being "enlightened? and "de-enlightened". I only believe that every living things live in this world for a purpose. If those flowers and animals are here for the praying purposes, then they have done their good deeds.
@ElicBxn (63194)
• United States
27 Aug 12
The flowers that are used in your products are only grown for that purpose, if they weren't being used so, they wouldn't be alive at all. Instead, they are carefully grown and protected to provide this service. Would you deny a service of something for which they live? This is how I feel about animals too. They wouldn't be bred and raised and cared for if they weren't going to then be used for food.
@vandana7 (98527)
• India
27 Aug 12
Are flowers only born to be offered to god and others? As to god, who is omnipresent, do we have to pick something and ensure that its lifespan decreases? Is god not already enjoying the beauty and fragrance of flower on the plant, if that is the reason I offer it to him?
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63194)
• United States
27 Aug 12
I don't know about offer them to a god, I was referring more to them being used to scent products. I'm sure any god can enjoy them where he put them.
@vandana7 (98527)
• India
27 Aug 12
Yeah..I am fine with using them as scent products ..because we need to be in company of others and that can affect the comfort levels. So it is in a way necessity.
1 person likes this
@rambansal (574)
• India
28 Aug 12
I highly appreciate you feelings for Nature and preservation of its bounties all over around us, which we go on over-exploiting for our vested interests and wrong traditions. Womanhood itself is the most beautiful creation of natural evolution to keep the mankind under discipline through her overall influence. She doesn't need any flowers for her decoration. Once, I visited Kedarnath temple in Himalayas. There I read a poem inscribed on the boundary wall of the temple narrating existence of Tulsi (Basil) forests all around the temple. Since the temple has been made there, Tulsi leaves are being offered to so-called lord Vishnu to please him as a tradition. Now there are no forests of Tulsi there, but whatever tiny leaves of Tulsi grow there, local laborers pluck them up and supply to the temple authorities for making them available to devotees for offering to the Lord. This way, we have damaged our Basil shield against disease viruses, and are sick for our wrong tradition. I am ashamed to say that we are the greatest fools on this earth.
@vandana7 (98527)
• India
28 Aug 12
Why dont we grow up ..start thinking? Try to decipher the meanings and reasons of our rituals, differentiate rituals from religion..many of those rituals do not have any reason to exist in present time..they may have made sense back then..not now. Shouldnt our religion offer answers and rituals dynamic so that nothing stinks like stagnant pond? Religions of the past have lost their significance..and we are only doing that to our religion in these days and times..
• India
29 Aug 12
All these considerations made me a determined 'ATHIEST' for whom all all religions and primary vehicle of these 'GOD' are nonsense. I am just a logical human being ..
@vandana7 (98527)
• India
1 Sep 12
I am not athiest, because I do believe that there has to be a creator without whom there can be no creation, just like we cant be born without parents. I am ok with calling him by what so ever name. However, I do find some rituals so very outdated and overused that I wonder what happens to people's brains, the same people write those software programs, isn't it?
• United States
27 Aug 12
I feel. Lot like you. I won't pick flowers for any reason because it kills them. To kill plant life for vanity is just wrong to me. To me, it seems that God would be saddened at the deTh of his creation for what people think He wants.
@vandana7 (98527)
• India
27 Aug 12
Wow welcome to the club of different thinking.. I'd forgive those deos and stuff too Sally, because after all, we have to sit amongst friends and colleagues and family and we need to smell ok..if not fresh. But using it to pray to god ..and let it rot there..and such purposes seems such a waste of beautiful creation..
• India
28 Aug 12
Well looks like what you are thinking even god might not have though that deep. It is difficult for human beings to exist in this world if he/she starts think in this fashion. 90% of what be consume as food comes from living-beings. And thinking about flower offered to god staying in South India is little too tough. As here almost 80% of the ladies use flower to beautify there hair almost every day. In the evening while returning from office we can see women buying flowers and attaching it to their hair clips on their head.
@vandana7 (98527)
• India
28 Aug 12
I am fine with eating anubrataroy..we dont have a choice in that, but we do have a choice on whether we want to kill just for the sake of relieving our conscience and feeling better. I am a sinner..so do I feel any better when I get into that temple with some flowers in my hand offering it to god and telling myself..look I spent 100 bucks to give you these flowers, so god, you'd better give me something between 100 to 1000 times that..lol I mean..actually I find it WEIRD..now that my thinking process went in that direction. :) Even growing flowers to offer to god is weird. Why dont we grow food instead and feed people, or cotton, and bring down cost of living. ..let me stop my chain of thoughts..:)