Monday, April 14, 2014

The aesthetics of praying

I was very inspired by the colourful rainbowed beads bracelet I saw in a TV character today. Until I thought its a rosary (the Catholic prayer bead).

That set me thinking, why are rosaries singular colored? (unless some over zealous nun somewhere in Uganda got bored by the monotony and poverty and made colorful rosaries) Why cant we have colorful rosaries or prayer beads? Also set me thinking further, why should color and beauty of any prayer tool or way of praying matter?

 But...does prayer have to be serious and stoic? Dont we smile in our impossible requests to God and wink when we demand ask the impossible from him just so that he can think us Chandler-cute and 'just do it' for us? After all he is the omnipotent....right? Apart from all our Twitter jokes on God and religion, we know we gotta humour him once in a while so that kneeling down hurts less with the weight of our demands.

So.... if we do get colourful prayer beads and brightly hued prayer mats, does our atmosphere around prayer time be more 'fresh'? The latest trends after the Lakme Fashion Week is print on print, basically means you can read Times of India and Indian Express together and still cannot understand why Arvind Kejriwal had a 3 month long muffler round his neck and a cough he could not cure but he promised 700 litres of water to Delhi every day!

So if we design our prayer tools according to prints and shades of the season are we more 'in' tune with fashion and thus better receptive to the shlokas and Psalms? Or do we wait till another Fall  like Jesus fell the 3rd time in his way of the cross ( oops! Fall is a fashion term you dimwit!) .....to understand prayer and worship is joining the group of endangered species ( where being religious is considered as unfashionable and church going is more about which dress to wear )

There is a new feeling in the air and it is not Odonil. It is this 'feel-good' factor that we are desperate to associate with everything. We used to LIKE pebbles, like icecream and like school. Now we LOVE roads made of pebbles, LOVE the butterscotch flavor and LOVE school friends. We over zealously 'love' everything. Why did the chicken cross the road ? - Coz it loved the other side!

We overzealously associate aesthetics to praying too.Praying, visiting the temple and closing your eyes to say your wish was a calm feeling inside. Not the feeling of new dress on Christmas or the name of your dad as sponsor for the rituals of the day.

Now shut up. Its not a beadiful day after all !


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