Wedding is a ceremony where a bride and groom take vows to remain with each other for the rest of their lives. I have been attending weddings since childhood and every time I attend a wedding, it is a very beautiful and nice experience. In my opinion, a wedding is a bond of love and affection between a boy and a girl who are ready to care for each other whether things are positive or negative. It becomes a responsibility of bride and groom to look after each other. These couples are ready to leave anything rather than leave each other. When I was a child, I attended weddings to greet bride and groom and eat various food items that are prepared in the wedding. As children, we were given new clothes each time a wedding was to be attended. The parents used to take us to the venue and bless the couple after which were taken back to home past dinner. In India, a wedding is a ritual where a Brahman is present and the groom takes seven different vows in front of the Brahman before the bride is accepted as the wife. A Brahman is treated as a messenger of God and his presence marks the presence of supreme almighty in the wedding. Also, there is a separate importance given to Gods and Goddesses in the wedding. India is said to be a land of sages, vedas, puranas and Bhagavatas. Every single man in India is treated with respect and equal importance in given to every citizen of India. Gods are worshipped in the presence of saintly fire which tells that truth is always better than lie and how you must live in harmony with each other. Along with all these ceremonies, the bride and groom are sent to live with each other.
Recently, I attended a wedding which was the first of the kind in my life. It was a wedding of Goddess Tulsi along with God Shaligram. I heard my mother saying a few days ago that we are going to arrange a marriage, so I became curious as always as to who would be the bride and groom and what would I be wearing in the wedding. It happened on 15th November, 2021 and I was a part of this ritual. There is a plant in India which is named as Tulsi and is widely famous for its therapeutic and medicinal values. It is said that in ancient times, this plant named Tulsi was a goddess who is said to be the queen of Lord Shri Krishna whereby she dies when Lord Krishna asked Tulsi (early name Vrinda) to go to earth and live a human life. She asked Lord Krishna not to let her leave the Aakash Lok which Lord Krishna plainly denied. When Lord Krishna came to earth, he recognized Tulsi as Vrinda who turned into a plant after sacrificing her life. Since that time, Tulsi is prayed as a goddess and made to marry God Shaligram who is said to be a rebirth of Lord Vishnu found in the ancient river named Gandki. This wedding was done with the same rituals and customs as we do nowadays with every single couple. The prayers that we do are related to our beliefs in God and this wedding was also a gesture to explain that we still remember them. I had been heavily moved after watching this wedding. Lately, I started losing interest in weddings but this wedding inspired a spark within me that God is present everywhere and you should watch all the great customs and vast culture of your motherland India. This turned out to be a day of remembrance for me. I would like to thank all the people who made this happen and I shall be obliged to those people who invited me.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsi_Vivah
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