Belief:
A belief is our mind’s state which one may have as per one’s opinion and having a strong confidence that it is true. It comes as the individual grows in the certain environment. It can also be formed from a group of people. It is mostly concerned with the God or the supernatural powers. It is something which is very subjective and can be differentiate from one another. It can also be formed from the primitive people around the individual. For example: Faith in god is a belief and there is only one god, one spirit, which can be named different in the different communities. Most hindu people believe that there is always a spirit around us which is called as “aatma” who knows everything what we do and say. Different part of the world have difference type of opinions and so is belief. People gets angry when someone challenges his/her belief because they believe that it is true. It is not always be related to religion, a belief can also be on any individual. We should always respect one another’s belief. As we all know that there is a strong belief that universal law of cause and effect which we can it as “Karma” and reincarnation “Punarjanam” which is an endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth is the best example of belief. Hindu people believe that all the living creatures have a soul. They do not eat beaf as cow is considered as sacred and they do not kill them and eat. There are many fasting days in a year like people fast in navratri days (9 days) and cannot eat wheat, onions etc and they pray to god everyday by reading a katha. Also, there is also a belief that waking up morning is good for one’s health and mind.
Rituals:
Rituals and belief are interrelated because rituals can’t be performed without belief. A belief is what is in our mind and ritual is what we do (in action). Example of ritual is funeral ritual or traditional vows in wedding ceremony. Rituals are a mix of gestures, objects, words etc. It defines the tradition of any community which people are following from the very past. It is to show some important things in our lives like we have wedding to celebrate the marriage. It is performed in a customary way. Different communities have different rituals. For example: meditation in Buddhism, baptism in Christianity. It come with the surroundings, group of people and observation from all. There is a sequence for performing any ritual: decide which ritual needs to be followed as per the occasion, then plan, collect all the things which are to be involved, prepare the space, take bath and use oil if the planned ritual has some oil to be used, gather people you want to be part of your ritual and cast your circle. It is not that everybody follows their rituals, people do change as per their convenience. Rituals are basically performed by priests (like in marriage). For example: in Hindu marriage, priests ask the bride and broom to take seven round around the fire taking its oath that they will take care of each other, in Gurudwara marriage, the couple needs to take four rounds only, in Durga puja, their rituals start from 10 days before the puja.
A sense of tradition makes rituals very powerful. People consider the rituals as basic social act which is pure, may or may not have much knowledge about it.
If any ritual is not followed or performed by somebody in a way that it should be, it creates a negative thoughts in one’s mind and stops somebody to complete the task. Also people do believe that something will happen wrong if the task is performed even after the ritual is not followed properly. They say that the person who don’t followed properly will be cursed or punished by god.
Rituals and believes are made by human only. It is in our mind that by not performing the task properly will result to curse/punishment by god. These rituals and believes are actually modified or not followed by people these days because they do not have faith in it and do as per their convenience.
