GREETINGS

Pranaam Swamiji! I am a person who believes that one must not be blind in following religious rituals and ceremonies just for the sake of pleasing others or unless convinced of the underlying objectives behind such practices.There were occasions when a number of doubts and a number of ifs and buts had come to my mind while following certain religious rituals. After being a regular listener to Swami’s discourses in the morning,I have become more confident that I am right in not suppressing the urge to ask why and why not on the appropriateness in following some of the rituals. I have come a long way in getting rid of a number of superstitious,rather outdated religious practices that I used to follow earlier.But with all this,I look forward to Swami’s help in clarifying a thought in my mind.This is regarding a real incident that I was a witness to in 2006.In the month of January that year my husband had marked the shradham dates of his parents on the Mathrubhumi calendar so that he would not forget them. But in June we forgot the date as had happened on a couple of earlier occasions. When in the morning he started the scooter to drop me at the bus stop he was surrounded by a flock of crows and they were cawing and attacking him ,not allowing him to take the vehicle ahead and to my surprise,I ,the pillion rider was unharmed by them. The crows again attacked him while returning home after leaving me at the stop.Though the incident was quite shocking,nothing struck me at that time but in the evening when I sat pondering,I thought of looking up for the dates in the calendar and to our shock and dismay that was the shradham date of my father-in-law. With all my scientific analysis of the incident,to this date I could not come to terms with the strange coincidence of the happening and the date of shradham. I look forward to Swami’s words of enlightenment on this. Thanking you, Saraswathy