There was a story I read  in my childhood. In that story a person who had gone for pilgrimage, puts the money he had with him, in a copper vessel and places  it in a hole he dug in the ground and then covered it and put some flowers on the elevated mud cover, so that when he comes back after having a holy dip in the river, he could recognize it and take back his money from there.

Somebody saw that place covered with flowers, he thought it might be some religious activity, and it  might  give some good results by doing so at that place, so he also put some flowers after making a small peak in the mud, and soon there were so many small hillock type shapes, covered with flowers in that area and that fellow lost his money, since he could not find where exactly he had put his money underground.

One can say that there might be some traditions or say rituals, formed in such a way, which do not have any solid reason and scientific explanation behind  them.  But yes there are so many which have good reasons, making them worth following. And the traditions which our masses follow are mostly time tested and there are good reasons for following them.

The human race has got a long history, we learn many things with time and if there are some traditions formed, based on practical experience of our forefathers, then it is possible that people adopt them as traditions, without  knowing the exact reasons why such traditions were formed. As long as these do not have anything wrong in them, we can follow them without knowing the detailed reasons behind them.

Yes, the wise people must also keep testing these age old traditions and if they find them to be useless, they can advise the common people to do away with them.  There have been many traditions which have been discontinued with time. Progressive societies keep testing their traditions too with time.

In corporate sector also, there are best practices developed, based on experience, our society, communities also do so.

In Hindu religion, and in other religions also, people believe in celebrations and we find reasons to celebrate together. But only thing is that we may gather as many people as possible to celebrate, but it should not be against anybody.

The biggest thing in the world is love, it is also said that ‘God is love’. So any activity, any tradition we follow, should help us in spreading love, and in no case should it be instrumental in creating hatred.

With these words I submit my humble views regarding Traditions, which I feel are the best practices evolved in any society, community or religious group.

• This is my submission based on the weekly prompt- People follow old traditions/rituals without knowing the reason behind it. Do you think these traditions can become less complicated if we know exact reason why they started following these tradition on the first place? #oldtradition on #IndiSpire.

Thanks for reading.