An offer of gratitude
Tomorrow, this new moon day, is known as the Mahalaya Amavasya. It is the beginning of Dussehra. It is a special day dedicated to making an offering to express our gratitude to all the past generations of people who have contributed to our life.
Scientists say that human beings and their ancestors have lived on this planet for 20 million years. All these hundreds of thousands of generations have given us something or the other. The language we speak, the way we sit, our clothes — almost everything that we know today came to us from these generations.
When only animals existed on this planet, it was all about survival, eating, sleeping, reproduction and finally dying one day. Then slowly, this animal started evolving. From being horizontal, it started standing up; the brain started growing, and this animal’s ability to do things suddenly started multiplying.
The significant thing about being human is that we can use tools. With time this simple ability of using tools, grew into technologies. The day an ape picked up a thighbone of an animal and started fighting; when, apart from his own body, he had the necessary intelligence to start using other tools to make his life comfortable, that was the beginning of a new journey of human life on the planet.
Now, human beings started structuring their lives so that they could live a better life than animals. Shelters came up, buildings came up — so many things started to happen on this planet. From simple things like making fire to discovering the wheel, this legacy has been passed down from generation to generation. What we are today is only because of all the efforts made in the past by our ancestors for a better survival. If human beings had never worn clothes, and suppose you were the first person to stitch a shirt, it would not have been the easy task it is today.
We have taken all the things that we have today for granted. But without the generations that came before us, firstly we would not have existed; secondly, without their contribution we would not have all the things that we have today. So instead of taking them for granted, on the day of Mahalaya Amavasya we express our gratitude to all of them. It is done as a ritual to pay homage to one’s dead parents, but is actually an expression of gratitude for all those generations of ancestors who lived before us.
During this time, in the Indian subcontinent, new crops would have just begun to bear yield. So their first produce is offered to the ancestors as a mark of respect and thankfulness, by way of pind, before the whole population breaks into celebration in festivals like Navaratri, Vijaya Dashami and Diwali.
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, an internationally renowned spiritual leader, is a visionary, a humanitarian, author,
poet and speaker.
He can be contacted at www.ishafoundation.org
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