Our world has a long-standing practice of burning incense sticks and using incense. It was believed that aromatic plant materials drove demons away from the earth and freed the gods to inhabit it.
My faintest memory of incense sticks takes me back to my childhood, my grandmother burning them at 6 am, performing her morning rituals. Often I remember waking up, coming to my senses with the delightful fragrance of the incense filling up my nostrils before I could even open my eyes. I would visualise the smoke filling up my room and open my eyes to see a translucent layer of fog hovering below the ceiling, since grandmother used to place them right outside my room. The fresh morning air used to bring much of that Mogra incense smoke inside through the windows of my room.
Isn’t it silly how most of us have some sort of memory attached to different smells? With incense, sometimes it reminds us of our elders, sometimes a specific festival or event or just the calmness it brings with its presence. Whether it is used for worship, meditation, aromatherapy, to welcome good spirits or to repel insects, its nature is such that it makes its presence felt to everyone who surrounds it without even being visible.
Since ancient times, incense sticks have been widely discovered in a variety of places of worship, including churches, monasteries, mosques, and temples. Various substances have been used for incense since the beginning, either in mixture or separately. These materials include fragrant woods, herbs, resins, and essential oils.
But is there more to it? What goes into making it? Why does it feel good? And should you include it in your life?
