Ritual and Love - What's the connection?

It's a bit long post…I hope it's not boring.
A question flicks in my mind always. Is ritual important or Love important in our life? Today I tried to find answer it.
Can we pick one and stick to it?
As I see it, both Rituals (Customs) and Love in our life is complementary to each other.
One cannot exist without the support of other.
So, if I love someone can't I just live with that person if we both agree?
I would say, yes we can. But how do we tell she / he agreed for that? That person would have indicated me with her agreement in some kind expression. For example it could be one among these: verbal agreement, exchange of ring, a chain, a bracelet or some kind memorabilia. So here we might not opted for conventional rituals, but I definitely expressed my love in some way and I would do it for years to come in same way. So it became a custom and hence it qualifies as a RITUAL. In a nutshell RITUAL is a way to express our EMOTION.
What is the spiritual meaning of it?
Best example is RaDev. Both loved each other. Both got married to each other. But what was the thing which kept their relationship alive? was it LOVE? Or was it MARRIAGE?
See the beauty of it. It was Dev's love which propelled him to look for his love / wife. It was the MARRIAGE which supported Rad to keep her love alive. So love gave the meaning for marriage and marriage gave the support for RaDev love.
Marriage is a ritual to call a couple "HUSBAND and WIFE" and love is the bonding material which keeps marriage intact. Otherwise that love less marriages are just meaningless. (Dev and Vish). Ritual and love cannot be separated. They complement each other.
Today's episode gave one more angle to it. Today we could see that Radhika's love for Dev and his family has motivated her to walk and come for the ritual. And we could see the increment in emotional attachment between Radhika and Purohit family.
That's why LOVE and RITUALs are inseparable.

very insightful post. i think we all feel the need to symbolise our love in some way. hence the birth of rituals. every ritual has some some emotion behind it. for ex. today's puja symbolises vaishali's yearning for a heir. Rituals without emotion have no meaning. and love without rituals..?? i dont know. i think humans are just programmed this way. Hence there are some rituals and customs in every corner of the world.

Originally posted by: deepthi82

very insightful post. i think we all feel the need to symbolise our love in some way. hence the birth of rituals. every ritual has some some emotion behind it. for ex. today's puja symbolises vaishali's yearning for a heir. Rituals without emotion have no meaning. and love without rituals..?? i dont know. i think humans are just programmed this way. Hence there are some rituals and customs in every corner of the world.<br>

You said it right. Rituals without emotional attachment has no meaning. Love without rituals is not complete.

It was amazing-
Dev totally in love, was looking after Radhika so she does not any more pain letting go of the rituals.
Radhika - Rasams were important being married and following the rituals.

Bravo to the married Couple.
I think after this incident, Dev will warn the whole family, he is in control and no rasms will be performed unless he authorized them as Raj Purohit....

In our society Ritual is most important .
When two persons are married , they do things together , they are treated as one . This creates love by association . This gives a feeling of belonging .
that is how arranged marriages work . In olden times , marriages were performed without the boy & girl even seeing each other & they had happy & harmonious lives .
The situation changes when love comes before marriage .
If those who love get married , sone mein suhaga , every ritual binds them & they have social approval & religious sanctity .
But if one gets married to other than the love , the ritual of getting married is more powerful . The story of Dev does not happen in real life .
Gradually , the person , husband or wife , in order to remain married succumb to the external aspect of being Husband & wife & go thru the life of a married couple . They gradually fall in line though may still have feelings for their loved one
That is why even the homosexuals are these days want the legality of marriage to bind them
In this story , Dev had love to bind him to radhika but Radhika remained unmarried only because of the ritual of marriage otherwise though she was attracted to Dev she would not have remained unmarried & would have married Keshav .She would have been a dutiful , loving wife .

Great post, it made me think about the connection between Love and Rituals but in the case of Radev, i think that these both and Radhs devotion to kanah brought them together