As I opened my eyes with the finishing of our morning family prayer today, I found a girl waiting for me from our vicinity with a plate holding rakhi and some sweets.
Raksha Bandhan is a widespread Hindu festival which celebrates the bond of affection between brothers and sisters. This date on which Raksha Bandhan falls this year is 7th of August, which is today. Raksha Bandhan is the celebration where the sisters tie (raakhi) a special cord known around the wrist of Brothers. On this auspicious day brothers make a promise to their sisters to protect them from all harms and troubles. In Sanskrit language the meaning of Raksha Bandhan is a bond of protection. This festival falls on the full moon day. Raksha Bandhan is refered to as Vish Tarak, Punya Pradayak and Pap Nashak. Rakhis are ideally made of silk with gold and silver threads and decorated with sequins and studded with semi precious stones. On this day people make tasty dishes and sweets at home and exchange gifts.
Beside many other myths and legends the story from Bhavishya Purana is largely accepted as a basis for this festival. According to Bhavishya Purana, in the war between Gods and demons, Indra (the deity of sky, rains and thunderbolts) was humiliated by the dominant demon King Bali. Indra’s wife Sachi consulted Vishnu, who gave her a bracelet made of cotton thread, calling it holy. Sachi tied the holy thread around Indra wrist, blessed with her prayers for his wellbeing and triumph. Indra successfully overpowered the Bali and recovered Amaravati. This story stirred the protective power of holy thread. The story also suggests that the Raksha Bandhan thread in ancient India were amulets, used by women as prayers and to guard men going to war, and that these threads were not limited to sister-brother like relationships.
Indian history also have instances where some queens have sent rakhis to kings belonging to other kingdoms and the kings in turn offered their help and protection to their rakhi sisters. History has it that the Hindu King Porus refrained from striking Alexander the great because the Alexanders wife had tied a Rakhi on his hand and made him her Rakhi Brother. In great epic Mahabharata Krishna advises Yudhishtir to tie the Rakhi to guard himself against evil forces. In this epic Kunti ties rakhi to her grandson Abhimanyu and Draupadi ties to lord Krishna.
However, looking at all these said traditions, though this festival’s initial practice started with wives or mother tying the holy thread with time how the festival came to get limited between the bond of brother and sister is still a critical question left unanswered by followers.
So the first reason for the obvious conclusion would be that the practice of rakhi (between brother and sister) has no religious significance.
And the second reason for such conclusion is that the rakhi bounded by Indra’s wife was not to protect the one who is binding it (Wife of Indra) but to protect the one is being bounded with (Indra). Whereas today the one who is being bound (brother) has to protect the one who binds it (sister). This is another paradox within Hindu mythology, again, left with no explanation, thus, another reason for aforementioned conclusion.
Thus, raakhi, more than a religious significance holds a cultural significance in itself. And of course conveys some good meanings and nurtures the bond of affection between brothers and sisters.
And media holds its own monetary reasons behind publicizing spirit of such festivals along side business community. They have nothing to do with the meaning of any festival but work only for their sells to increase.
However, most importantly, its highly ironical in India to see it as a country where such festival are celebrated with much piety and joy in every rural and urban corners of its religions has ever increasing number of crimes and violence against women as compared to other countries that don’t have such charlatan festivals. Past years had made India in the hit list among rape countries and in future it can again find it’s place even higher. It simply means males honour own sisters and dishonours others’ simultaneously. This is plain portrayal of the extreme form of hypocrisy in the matrix of Indian chauvinistic patriarchal nexus towards women. On the one hand Indians are known for externally signifying every human relation with religious identity (myth) and divinizing womanhood in every possible design human mind can conceive and on the other hand perpetrating gravest crime towards the same with very little or no preventive measures by the state or society.
Before it’s too late we better concentrate our mind, money and time more on some efficacious measures to guard womanhood as whole (not only immediate siblings) than money and time draining unproductive festivals born out of unproven irrational myths.
Matthew 5:47-4847 And if you love only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?
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