mloco

a ritual is a habitual thing you do that has no meaning.

all the steps laid out are not ritualistic - they are maryada, part of the technique of the chalisa. Its not a ritual - you decide when you want to do it. If this is a ritual then cleaning a house, laying chaddra, making a manji sahib/ charni before starting an Akhand path is alos ritualistic. Next people will be saying that the maryada for Sukhasn etc are ritualistic.

look at a picture of any Mahapurkh in samaadhi, they will be sitting on a sheet/carpet, with a steel pot of water in front of them.

40 days is just a calculation of how long it will take to do - just like Akhand paath takes 48 hours.

Mool Mantar Jaap is not easy - try doing one full mala of mool mantar jaap and see what happens.

The jot will attract shakti and will keep the place clear of negative energy. The maryad of the ghee was started by Guru Nanak Dev Ji himself.

you drink the water because its amrit. You do the chitey to cool the room (ishnaan) - jus like you do in frint of Guru Sahib. As you can see - he was advised by Giani Thakur Singh

Simply saying Waheguru is not simran - everyone says Waheguru. You need to do paath in the right environment for real simran and abhyaas to start. Mool mantr is the highest mantar - sava lakh jaap of mool mantar wil bring huge fal - I believe it enables you to see the difference between true/false in everything you do so that you can act through anbhav - and then real simran can start.

It only seems like a ritual to you because you do not understand what it is and the effect it has.

you need to know the correct technique to do paath - the problem with Sikhi today is that no one follows the correct trechnique - no one teaches the Sikhs how to do paath, sit in samaadhi. And when someone knows then everyone else starts saying its a ritual/meaningless. If you look at xylitol's post you'll see that he says that this is the 'maryada' - thats just it, your average Sikh that only goes to your average Gurudwara on Sunday will know nothing about maryada unless they make it a point to find out.

If you want to know for sure then try it and see - dont knock it till you try it

i agree, they are not mythological and do exist, and are in constant service of Waheguru.

I believe that Gurbani says that 'Gurmukh is the most excellent way' because it is only through human birth that normal souls can actually merge with Waheguru, I remember hearing that even the Devi and Devte wish they could have human birth to have the chance.

Its mentioned in Jap Ji Sahib too :

'Tin chele parvaan
Ik sansaari, ik bhandaari, ik lae di ban
Jiv tis bhavai tivai chalave jiv hovai phurman
Oh vekhai ona nadar na hovai
Bahuta eh vidaan.'

Scuse any mistakes please, I wrote it off the top of my head.

before they left Rara Sahib for the last time they sung:

'Din ta torey Raigey, Hogea pranaa Chola'
Only a few days are left, the Chola has become old.

during the deewan.