Fasts and festivals go hand in hand in India but I am very surprised to observe the daily mundane eatables like dal, rice or chapati along with some vegetable is better to be left for in the name of fasting as we really enjoy scrumptious meals of different carbs, nuts and fruits like sago, porridge, peanuts, fruit salads, sweet potato delicacies etc but I guess the main motto if fasting during the age old days was supposed to be for detoxification but hello this kind of heavy food is not going to detox anybody but leave you a fat laden chubby body waiting eagerly for another fast… days are also allocated for each divine power like Mondays for lord shiva, Tuesdays for ‘pawan putra’ hanuman and so on but well who knows what’s the truth and other days… if it’s Shivratri people will drench the deity with pods of milk mixed water but say on ‘Hanuman Jayanti’ no one would give a damn to Shivji pretend even that they don’t even know who is poor Shivji… that’s the non equilibrium of our honest religious dos and don’ts!
Why can’t we shower our milk and water on any rock or stone? Why can’t we believe that every rock is a ‘shivling’? Or every tree branch could be the flute of lord Krishna? Or every female is goddess Durga or any form of power and when required could very well turn into goddess Kali, that every child is lord Ganesha or Kartik.
So the point here is we are dancing in our make belief factors with no pivot at all people are dying to offer bhog or prashad to their respectable deities but if I ask for to feed a girl child or donate for some cause like old age homes or for cancer patients people would think twice and more so ever who has see the bhog goes into the bellies of the deities but ultimately it is enjoyed by the priests and their followers exhibiting their lavish bellies but then that’s the belief which I find literally mind boggling…