With the Grace of the Supreme Personal and Abstract Force Being Energy thinga-ma-jig
...Rituals are accepted practice and endorsed by Scripture
They are. Human societies cannot function without
ritual. Saints and Gurus of the past recognized the place of rituals in religion and allowed them to continue. Through rituals you can bring communities together. They are also important as a path to God. e.g. worshipping a diety together in a large gathering with plates with oil lamps and sweets, music and hymns, gathering together in prayer, in readings, bowing down, serving of parshad afterwards, gathering 5 times a day. These rituals hold us together.
One may not even know how ritualistic one's culture is unless someone from another culture points it out. Of course, those who point out how ritualistic others are, often don't realize their own rituals. They view others in bad light for what they don't recignize in themselves, not in their community, not yet, I mean in their individual ritualistic self.
(meditate)
Religions without rituals are lame, they cannot be run. Human society without ritual cannot be run. Our whole society no matter how modern we think it is, just as ritualistic as it ever was.
(meditate)
Atheists are just as ritualistic as religious folk. They have their own ceremonies.
Whenever someone is awarded everyone gathers together and gives cup-like trophies, or turbans, etc.
All the ceremonies in marriage
Wearing a turban everyday/ Styling your hair daily
Going to school daily
Taking a shower daily
Brushing you teeth daily
Parties/ gathering on forums to argue... err discuss things
...to mention a few. E.g. It is not necessary to shower everyday. "Those damn foreigners waste too much water cleaning themselves. F****** it up for the rest of us." - An outsider (meditate)
These are rather pointless things. Or are they?
The meanings underlying the rituals seem to change quite a bit and differ from person to person, but ritual ultimately remains, with slight modifications over time. The amount of ritual is not decreasing at all. I would argue it does not need to, and to fight it, is like banging your head against a brick wall. Stop and see its importance instead.
Rituals are OK. What is not OK is that most people go through life, totally unconscious of any experience. They are focused on past events and future plannings without any value for what is happening in this moment. Rituals are often performed without any real intention or any real devotion. Instead they should be done with complete focus, just like any other task.
(meditate)
Worship in wordly sphere takes the form of ritual. Worship and it's associated rituals must be done with Shardha (the spiritual sphere), which is total attentiveness (in Bhagati, Sharda is the attentiveness arising from fear and love states, like how one feels towards their parents "Toon mat pita hum barak tere" You are my mother and father, and i am your child.). Without Shardha, worship is like brushing your teeth. With Shardha brushing your teeth becomes worship.
(meditate)
Wikipedia:
Sraddha is a broad concept which has no direct English relative or equivalent. In addition to faith, it can also be associated with trust, confidence, and loyalty.[1] The teacher Ammachi describes it as the "constant alertness arising from Love", and when choosing a single word to translate it into English, has used "awareness".[2] Other writers have also described the concept with emphasis on the intersection of faith and mindfulness, and it has been translated in this vein with words such as "diligence".[3]
Devotion is part of Shardha. Keep this in mind as you read on.
The highest form of Shardha is seeing all moments and content of life as sacred. But to get to this place one starts by seeing certain things as sacred like (for a Sikh) Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji and the 10 Gurus (devotion comes into play) then moving on to see the sacred in everything else (a greater devotion for God).
What does it mean to see something as sacred? When something is sacred, there is an increased alertness towards it taht arises out of both love and fear together. For example, Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, one's turban, Nishan Sahib, your parents.
We often do things to cultivate this alertness. E.g. bowing down to Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, Nishan sahib and parents/elders, not letting the turban fall on the floor or worst yet, in the toilet, always placing the turban, Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, Nishan Sahib on a high platform. Some people go even further and hold onto cloth pieces from coverings of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji and Nishan ahib. All of these acts are the beginnings of cultivating of Shardha, and they all happen to be rituals.
Shardha is the very basis of every human doing, and thus of worhip and rituals. An act without Shardha leads only to suffering. An act without concentration and devotion leads only to suffering. Just think about your day job, most people neither concentrate nor are mentally devoted to what they do. They suffer constantly.
(meditate)
Ritual is the communication of Shardha to others and to yourself. Combining Ritual and Shardha we get Worship.