The Upayana Ceremony The ceremony of Brahmopadesam is Upanayanam, which means, “taking near,” taking the young aspirant near Brahman, that is to say, introducing him to Brahmajijnasa (desire to know Brahman), the path of Brahman. It is one of the Samskaras (purificatory acts), rites which reconstruct the personality, reform the mind, purify it and re-build it. It makes the person receiving it a Dwija (a twice born)! The boy is born first into the world; now, he is born into the Sadhaka world. He becomes a Brahma-chari – a person who walks towards Brahman. So, it is a very significant day in the lives of these people, a day they must long remember with joy and thankfulness. It is the day when their hearts were turned towards God; and they should try not to run away from God hereafter; that is a great responsibility. 1 Gayathri manthra is Universal prayer The initiation was done by the Upadesham (instruction) of the Gayathri manthram. The manthram (sacred formula) is a universal prayer that can be used by men of all climes and creeds, for, it calls upon the Glorious Power that pervades the Sun and the three worlds to arouse, awaken and strengthen the Intelligence, so that it may lead to intense Sadhana (spiritual practice) and Sadhana may lead to success. Every little moment or incident results in sound; only, you may not be able to hear, because the range of your ear is limited. The falling of an eyelid over the eye makes a sound, the dropping of dew on a petal makes a sound. Any little agitation disturbing the calm is bound to produce sound. The sound caused by the primal movement that resulted in the enveloping of Brahman by self-evolved illusion is the Pranavasabdha or OM. The Gayathri is the elaboration of that Pranava and so, it is now held so venerable that initiation into spiritual life is achieved by its contemplation. The sound of a Manthra is as valuable as its meaning. Even a poisonous cobra is quietened by music; Nadham (sound), has that allaying property. The child in the cradle stops wailing as soon as the lullaby is sung; it may not carry any meaning; it may be a nonsensical rhyme or just a jingle, but, it quietens, soothes the nerves and induces sleep. In the case of the Gayathri, the meaning too is easy and profound. It does not ask for mercy or pardon; it asks for a dear intellect, so that the Truth may be reflected therein correctly, without any disfigurement. 2 Requisites of spiritual discipline The Brahmachari has vowed himself into a life of spiritual discipline. Now what are the requisites for the discipline? First : Faith, that can stand the ridicule of the ignorant, the cavilling by the worldly, the laughter of the low-minded. When someone ridicules, you should argue like this within yourself: Is he ridiculing my body? Well, he is doing what I myself would wish to do; for, I too want to escape out of this attachment of this body. Is he ridiculing the Atma? Well, he is doing the impossible, for, the Atma is beyond the reach of words or thought; it is unaffected by praise or blame. Say to yourself, “My Atma thathwa (Principle of the Self) is Nischala (immovable), it is Nirmala (pure),” and carry on. Second: Do not worry about ups and downs, loss or gain, joy or grief. You are yourself the maker of the ups and downs. If you but care, it can all be one smooth level. You label something as loss and something else as gain. You crave for a thing and when you get it, you call it joy; when you don’t, you call it grief. Cut the craving off, and there will be no more swinging from joy to grief. Third: Reason out and get convinced of the truth, Sarvam Brahmamayam(All is Brahman). You know there are five elements or bhuuthas, which constitute, by their permutations and combinations, the world called Prapancham, the “Five-constituted.” Prithivi or the Earth element has five qualities, the maximum, and so, it is the grossest. It has its own special characteristic of gandha (smell), as well as the characteristic of the other four, namely, sparsha, rasa, ruupa and sabdha (touch, taste, form and sound). The next one Jala, the water-element has only four, its own special one – taste and touch, form. So it is subtler than the Earth-element. Agni is subtler still, because apart from its special characteristics of form, it has only two others, sound and touch. Vayu, the Air-element has touch as its special and one more quality, sound. Finally, the lightest and subtlest of all the five, Akasha, the Sky-element, has only one characteristic, its own, namely, sabdha. Now, God is subtler than even Akasha and so He is all-pervading, even more than ether or anything more pervasive than that. His nature is beyond all human vocabulary, beyond all human mathematics. Have this conviction well stabilised in your intellect. 3 Establishment of Dharma by Adhi Shankara Fourth: Be steady in spiritual practice, and never hesitate once you have decided on it. When the bus is moving on, the dust will be floating behind as a cloud: it is only when it stops with a jerk that the dust will envelop the faces of the passengers. So, keep steadily engaged in the practice. Then, the cloudy dust of the objective world will not cover your face. Shankaracharya came to this world for the work of Dharmasthapana (establishment of righteousness), but he did not wage a war against the narrow sectarians or the wild theologians who opposed him or the critics who condemned him as a pseudo-Buddhist. He won them over by argument, persuasion and preaching. He spoke softly, but, with conviction. He gave his opponents fair chances to present their cases to the best of their ability and sometimes he even helped them to clarify their own points of view. Through Bodha (knowledge) alone can Dharma be saved in the modern Kali-age. That is why I am engaged in bodha (imparting knowledge), in this task of re-constructing through upadesha (instruction). When you scatter seeds on the surface of the soil, they do
