You must clearly understand what our scriptures mean by miseries and also what remedies can do to alleviate them. Remedies will not wash off all your sins, miseries, sickness, poverty etc just like that with rituals if your Karm balance sheet is not up to date to get one quite often the remedies reduce the impact, psychologically, physically on the individual doing the remedies with sincerity. Doing an act of charity, such as cleaning a temple, worshipping a cow, performing a Hom, or Havan in accordance to the rituals than the greed of both the performer and the doer. Your good Karm thus earned can give you some comforts, pleasures, relief from suffering in the physical body, but if one chooses it only for material upliftment, than the spiritual growth earned by these Punya will be wasted in no time.

Quite often our sufferings, miseries, are the result of our past lives bad Karm and in this life we first reduce them  by suffering and also improve it get better by concentrating on self effort to do good to earn some Punya, but evil acts done with or without knowledge can get us into the bad karma account easily. All our Rituals r only channels to move ahead in life, one can also atain them without rituals by good life style, simple needs and being helpful to one and all in whatever one can do, at least be kind in words and deeds.

Meditation, Yog, Praanaayaam can also help, but nothing can replace a Mantropaasanaa (Mantra Anushthaan) driven path; and for this one also one must have some good past Karm, so that one can a right Guru because without a Guru the path cannot be seen, leave alone take the road to it.

One has to earn enough Punya to seek the Almighty's grace to reduce the chain of births, deaths, look for salvation.  When you are suffering in this life, you are actually burning their past lives Karm and their burning can surely improve their end and also a good life in the next one. Our Rishi have lived a tough life and made this knowledge available to us, if we are open to learn by rigorous Tapas, Saadhanaa and Deekshaa. Offering Arghya or Havishya is no way going to deplete the Sun of his rich energy it is overflowing with. It is ridiculous to think that a little water offered to Soorya as Arghya will cool him.

Sanskrit is a multi layered language and has enough to explain to the seeker about its rich streams of knowledge, but it is difficult to understand, so these come from a Guru only not from books

Examples
(1) Paramaachaarya of Kaanchee Shree Chandrashekara Saraswati who was the youngest Shankaraachaarya at the age of 13, lived as the Peethaadhipati for over 87 years. When his sister was living in utter poverty the Aashram people and devotees asked him - "Can we do something to reduce her suffering and give her some comforts?" He said - "NO, Let her exhaust all her bad Karm in this life, she will be better of in her next life."

(2) Once somebody came to Sai Baba and requested him to cure his son untreatable son. Sai Baba said - "I can cure him but I would suggest that let him live like that, so that he can burn his past Karm Phal now and later he can live better life. Do you want that he should be sick in his next life too?" The man got quiet and went away.