Funfact: Why do Hindus break coconuts on auspicious occasions
Part 2: Quirky things in religions all over the world
If Thailand went for Strawberry Fanta for Gods, India went for coconuts! In Bangalore and South India in general, it is common on auspicious days to find pavements outside shops lined with a white pumpkin smashed into half and smeared with vermilion on the exposed flesh.
All rituals however, go back to the same origin — sacrifices. As human sacrifices were pronounced barbaric, Adi Shankaracharya and others worked to denounce the practice.
Coconut with its husk removed actually resembles a human head because of the marks on the outer shell — 2 eyes and a nose (some also believe it signifies a third eye).
When we as a society stopped breaking human skulls to appease Gods, we gave gentler meanings to our rituals — breaking of the coconut signifies breaking your ego and revealing truth and knowledge of your subtle self, signified by the white flesh of the coconut. That deduction of a tradition into a less harmful practice encouraged a whole breed of behavior of all kinds of people visiting a temple everyday, purchasing a coconut & breaking it everyday — even the non-believers of human sacrifice found the practice a far more satisfying practice & considered it as an offering to the gods.
Break your coconut and have a happy Friday! In the next part, we shall explore the probable origins to some of the religious practices.
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