Raksha Bandhan Celebrates Bond Of Love, Emotions Between A Brother, Sister

INOKE RABONU

Local Hindu pundit Thakur Singh says Raksha Bandhan is a special time for Hindus in particular as it strengthens brotherly and sisterly bond.

He says the ritual practiced during this special time showcases the siblings’ deepest love and bond of protection for one another.

“The pure bond of love between a brother and a sister is one of the deepest and most important,” Pundit Singh said

“The significant thread, which pulsates with sisterly love and sublime sentiments, is called the ‘Rakhi’,” he said

“It is ‘a bond of protection and love’, and Raksha Bandhan signifies that the strong must protect the weak from all that’s evil.”

He said he strongly feels that no festivals should be celebrated in abstract or in theories and principles, without showing its practical message and lesson.

“This is especially relevant because Indians in general and Hindus in particular hold the relationship of a brother and sister in high esteem, which supposedly signifies respect for sisters – the women. To Indian brothers, while your married sister is someone else’s wife, at the same time, your wife happens to be someone else’s sister.

“What this means is that for your sister to be respected and protected, you need to do the same to your wife who is somebody else’s sister.”

He said Fiji has high incidents of family violence, which among others, involve assault on wives by

husbands, but violence need not be physical, it also manifests as mental stress as well.

“This trend appears to have developed into a culture where the migrants, especially Indo-Fijians, who have migrated to developed countries, took this excess–baggage with them.

“While statistics in New Zealand speaks clearly, Indian migrants to Australia, Canada and USA can still feel consoled because no apparent statistics are available.

“However, one cannot bet their life away by saying we do not have this problem there as well.

“Therefore, as we approach Rakhi or Raksha Bandhan festival, it is pertinent to raise the issue of family violence and respect for women.

“Indians hold the festival of Raksha Bandhan in great reverence where brothers pledge to protect their sisters.

“It is such colourful, meaningful and rich festivals like this which makes India and Hindus proud.”

About Raksha Bandhan

Raksha Bandhan, also Rakshabandhan, is a popular, traditionally Hindu, annual rite, or ceremony, which is central to a festival of the same name, celebrated in India, some other parts of South Asia, and among people around the world influenced by Hindu culture.

On this day, sisters of all ages tie a talisman, or amulet, called the rakhi, around the wrists of their brothers, symbolically protecting them, receiving a gift in return, and traditionally investing the brothers with a share of the responsibility of their potential care.

Raksha Bandhan is observed on the last day of the Hindu lunar calendar month of Shraavana, which typically falls in August.

The expression “Raksha Bandhan,” Sanskrit, literally, “the bond of protection, obligation, or care,” is now principally applied to this ritual.

Until the mid-20th-century, the expression was more commonly applied to a similar ritual, also held on the same day, with precedence in ancient Hindu texts, in which a domestic priest ties amulets,

charms, or threads on the wrists of his patrons, or changes their sacred thread, and receives gifts of money; in some places, this is still the case.

In contrast, the sister-brother festival, with origins in folk culture, had names which varied with location, with some rendered as Saluno, Silono, and Rakri.

A ritual associated with Saluno included the sisters placing shoots of barley behind the ears of their brothers.