Part 4: Diary of an unknown SriVaishnavan travelling thro' America

[Guest guest]

(continuing from Part 3)

----------------------

 

Dear friends,

 

In ancient Vedic times, teachers too like all ordinary

men desired to amass wealth. They prayed earnestly to

the Almighty to grant them their wishes. The wealth

prayed for was however not in material terms. The

personal wealth of a teacher in those days was not

measured by the number of cattle in his stable, the

grain in his larder or the real estate he owned. The

real index of a teacher's 'networth' was rather in the

number of good and able students --"brahmachArin-s" --

who came to live and learn under his tutelage -- as

his beloved wards ("sishya").

 

In the Taittiriya Upanishad, in the famous section

called "sIkshavalli", we come across a beautiful

passage of mantras (1.4.2) which constitutes what one

might say is the universal 'Psalm of the Vedic

Teacher'. It is full of extremely stirring words and

sentiments. It is a masterpiece of Vedic composition

and in fact easily deserves to be enshrined eternally

as the credo and personal anthem of all teachers

everywhere in the world. It begins with the words:

 

"aavahanti vitanmAnA....

and,

"aa mA yantu brahmachAriNi svAhA...

yashOjanE'sAni svAhA...

 

and closes with,

 

"Evam mAm brahmachAriNah:...

 

To a teacher of Vedic times, one could say, the above

passage served as daily prayer from which to draw

inspiration from the Almighty Himself. Through it the

teacher was enabled to re-dedicate himself wholly and

sincerely, day after day, to the sacred vocation or

calling chosen by him in life.

 

Sometimes the above mantras were also used by the

teacher in prescribed ritual sacrifice called "hOmam"

which, when performed with firm faith ("shraddha"),

was believed to surely secure for the teacher the

great wealth he desired i.e. the wealth that lay in

great many numbers of students flocking to him. Such a

rite was called "aavahanti hOmam". Even today in

India, Vedic schools that had languished earlier for

lack of student enrolment, are known to have quickly

recovered as admissions increased, thanks to this

particular rite of "aavahanti hOmam" being conducted.

 

 

An English translation of the mantras can never do

real justice to the majesty and grandeur of the

original Upanishadic passage. Still, it is worth

reading one just to get some idea of the loftiness of

sentiment behind the "aavahanti homa" -- the great

'Vedic Psalm of the Teacher':

 

"Lord, may I grow in spiritual wisdom,

And may I have food and clothes and cattle

 

 

May students come to me from far and near,

Like a flowing river all the year;

May I be enabled to guide them all

To train their senses and still their minds;

 

May this be my wealth, O Lord,

May this be my fame."

(Taittiriya Upanishad:(1.4.2)

 

>From the above passage of the Taittiriya Upanishad we

can easily gather that teachers of those Vedic times

were very willing to undergo any pain, any struggle of

sacrifice in order to simply attract and bring

students "from far and near" and from "all quarters"

into their fold. It was their only wealth, their only

claim to fame.

 

It is not known how many teachers anywhere in the

world today might measure up to the high standards of

the Upanishadic ideal described in the mantras of the

"aavahanti hOmam". It is doubtful if even in India

such a "hOmam" is performed by teachers, Vedic or

otherwise, anywhere these days.

 

But on my recent tour of the United States, and while

visiting briefly U-Conn, Connecticut, I happened to

come across an event which I believe was truly

suggestive if not reflective of the great Taittiriya

ideal. The event is what I propose to describe to you

in the next posting.

 

***************

 

(to be continued)

 

Rgds,

 

dAsan,

Sudarshan

 

 

 

 

______________________

India Matrimony: Find your partner online.

http://.shaadi.com/india-matrimony/