Routines and rituals

Imagine it’s morning and there’s a mad rush. Alarm has violated your dreams, interrupting and deafening them with a crushing sound. You wake as if you’ve been kicked on your backside. Sit up groggy in your bed trying to make sense of your surroundings. And realise that you have to rush through your morning, if you are to reach your work place.

We all find ourselves in this situation more often than not. Yet we get ready in the most meticulous way possible. Brushing our teeth in a specific sequence, a result of what we have been taught as a child and modified as we have grown up. Taking bath in perfectly rehearsed motions, which body part first and which last to be scrubbed, a sequence which we follow diligently. Which leg, right or left that will go in the trousers or which hand will be the first to enter sleeves is always the same. Even which foot will be the first to wear the socks and shoes, is always the same.

Going on to the breakfast we all have our own set routine. The side of the mouth(left or right) we chew from is also fixed. These are our routines that we have formed over year. All these daily routines are almost etched in stone. To be broken only in unusual circumstances. Like if we are sick or someone at home is sick or there’s an emergency at work place, etc.,

Problem is, we can be disturbed if that routine is interrupted or changed. Some people less and some more. And that disturbed feeling can follow us throughout the day. Affecting other spheres of our daily affairs to varying degrees. Sometimes this can lead to misery. People associate getting out of their bed from the wrong side to bad happenings in the days. Other examples are the not finding their favourite dress, colour, not wearing shoes or clothes in their usual set way, seeing someone’s face, not taking bath, missing out on prayers, etc., There are a lot many things that can make us miserable. But disturbance in the routine is one of the major ones.

Further expanding on that, we also have our set of beliefs, biases and prejudices. Our individual routines and habits especially cultural and religious can enhance our beliefs and biases. Based on which we asses or judge people we meet. Rather we favourably or unfavourably perceive other people based on how different they are from us. So the end result is that we don’t see people, things or events “as they are, in their beautiful nakedness” but we see them “they way we believe they are, enveloped in shades of our conditioning”. Putting limitation on experiencing fully our existence, as well as the world at large. And that can limit our creativity, our productivity, our sense of achievement and fulfilment.

A little clarification about difference between discipline and routine. Discipline makes tasks easier and safe. Like driving on the road or using heavy machinery. Discipline in day to day life helps us to maximise our productivity and aid in achieving our targets in a shorter time. Be it while studying, at our work place or organising events. But routines are different. They have an innate ability to turn into rituals. Rituals which have lost their utility but we hold on to them because we are not comfortable without them. We are addicted to them. Like waking up early in the morning to go to work. On a holiday one can wake up a bit late. But then people hate to do that. Justifying it by saying, it’s my habit to wake up early. Or going to another country and insisting on eating food similar to the food of one’s home country. Without that, one may not feel like they have eaten properly. There are many such examples.

So what is the choice. Pamper our conditioned mind by following routines and rituals or be the liberated one. For once your are liberated, you judge everything with clear eyes, with the clean and pure mind of a child and the wisdom of a mature soul, where there are no absolutes but just possibilities.

©️ShashikantDudhgaonkar