Fwd: [t'venkatam] Guest is God

[Guest guest]

tiruvenkatam, "Jennifer (Jayanthi)"

<ilovemadras:

 

> Dear Friends,

> Hello. I have been asked to write and present a

> paper

> on Hindu culture. I am choosing the topic Guest as

> God. Can anyone refer me to any passages of holy

> scriptures to find some 'literature' background on

> this topic?

> Thank you.

> Regards,

> Jennifer

 

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

 

tiruvenkatam, mksudarshan2002 wrote:

 

Dear Jayanti (Jennifer),

 

Here's something that might be of use to you for your

paper on "Guest as GOD". Other members have also

already given their inputs.

 

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

 

There is a famous passage called "sIkshAvalli" in the

Taittiriya Upanishad (an ageless Vedic revelation of

India). In Sanskrit "sIksha" refers variously to the

science of phonetics, prosody, diction and intonation.

It is also a broad term for education, science, arts

and all crafts in general. The whole of this

Upanishadic passage is a Vedic teacher's convocation

address to his class of students who, having completed

their course of study with him for 12 long years, is

finally departing to return to its respective homes --

to face the world and live out its time on earth as

"brahmins", seekers of Truth.

 

While bidding them all good-bye, the Vedic teacher

gives his students wise counsel on a many matters. It

is a very moving scene indeed if one knows how to

visualize it vividly in one's mind. The teacher knows

he might be seeing his beloved students for the last

time. Their paths may not cross again in the journey

of life. And that's why he is eager to speak to them

from the depths of his heart.

 

He tells them how they should conduct themselves in

life, what values they must embrace, what personal

qualities they must cultivate, what is the nature of

Truth, what is God, what is the meaning and purpose of

human life... The whole of the "sIkshavalli" is a

truly soul-stirring passage indeed full of lofty,

ancient Upanishadic thought and wisdom.

 

One of the most famous lines in the passage is the

following:

 

"mAtr dEvo bhava

pitr dEvO bhava

AchArya dEvO bhava

atithi dEvO bhava..."

 

In simple translation, the lines mean:

 

"Regard Mothers as God,

Fathers as God,

Teachers as God,

and the Guest that enters your home too

As God incarnate!"

 

At first glance, the above lines may seem to us as no

more than obvious homily or stale truism. Respect and

love of parents and teachers is, after all, urged and

sanctioned in all cultures of the world. The ancient

Upanishad thus is not telling us anything particularly

new or profound.

 

But behind the apparent simplicity of the Upanishad

pronouncement, there is a not-too-obvious message that

affirms 4 great universal human values. They are

(a)Family (b)Gratitude ©Learning and (d)

Charitableness.

 

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

 

The first two lines -- i.e. about looking upon the

Mother and Father as God -- emphasize the importance

of the Family as a human institution. If Mankind must

survive and thrive, the Family must survive and

thrive. ("The happiness of all Humanity lies in the

happiness of a Family", is in fact another old and

famous Vedic prayer --"lOkA samasthA sukhinO

bhavantu...")

 

How are we to judge if the Family as an institution is

hale and hearty? The litmust test is to find out if

our aged and sick mothers and fathers are well cared

for. Where we find the old and the dying increasingly

being neglected by or alienated from their children;

where we find an increasing number of old-age homes or

sanatoriums springing up in the community or

neighbourhoods around us; wherever we find aged

"senior citizens" struggling in the evening of their

lives, living alone and anxiously, trying to scrape

through from one day to another, and living from

hand-to-mouth upon paltry pensions and pathetic

doles.... Wherever we come across such tell-tale signs

we can be sure they are symptoms of societal

degeneration brought about by the decline of the

Family institution. It is a sign Mankind is headed

down a wrong road...

 

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

 

The first two lines of the Upanishad edict above, when

read together, serve also to underscore the importance

of Gratitude as a human value.

 

We owe an eternal debt of gratitude to our parents for

giving us so much in life that is priceless ---

unconditional love, care and support. Our parents

bring us from Nothingness into Being. It is they who

delivered to us God's gift of Life. Thereafter they

prepared us for everything in life. Thanks to them we

grew to maturity and evolved into full, fine human

beings. Everything needed to succeed in life, and to

find fulfillment in it, we surely received from our

parents. Hence, in that respect, the parent is like

God i.e. like He who has bestowed upon us all the

priceless, life-enhancing bounties of His Benevolence,

viz.: this very planet we live upon, which is our only

home in an otherwise vast, empty and terrifying

universe, and filled with sunshine, fertile earth,

food, air, sparkling water and beautiful forests...

 

If there is no gratitude in our hearts to show our

parents, there is really no true Gratitude that we can

return to God Almighty.

 

There is a beautiful affirmation of this same human

value in that grand religious Sanskrit epic of India

--Srimadh Valmiki "Ramayana". We have the hero of the

epic, Sri Rama, the very incarnation of God upon

earth, saying this about the debt of Gratitude every

man owes his parents:

 

"yathA-shakthi pradAnEna snApanAcchAdanEna cha

nityam cha priya-vAdEna tathA samvardhanEna cha"

(II.111.10)

 

"A hundred things the mother and father do for their

child (as the English poet wrote, "little nameless

unremembered acts of kindness and love")! Who can

tell, who can measure, who can ever describe, who can

ever repay the million kindly acts received from one's

mother and father?"

 

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

 

The third line of the Upanishad 'vAkya' (dictum) is

 

"AchArya dEvO bhava"

Regard the teacher as God!

 

This simple statement is not just about teachers as

persons. It about the universal value of Education.

Human life has no real meaning without Education. A

life spent without learning is sheer waste and futile

existence. It is the teacher -- the 'guru' and

'AchArya' -- who leads us from Ignorance to

Enlightenment. The school-room, the library, the

museum, the university laboratory, the seminar-hall --

it is these institutions of Man that are his spiritual

workshop and retreat. It is through Education alone

that we can hope to discover and understand the world

and what life itself is indeed all about, and who we

are, where we come from and where we are going...

 

Without a "guru" or "AchArya", a teacher, guide and

mentor, there can be no progress in our lives, neither

material or spiritual. Hence we are exhorted by the

Upanishad to regard the Teacher as God incarnate.

 

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

 

The real profundity of the Upanishad commandment

however lies in the last line:

 

"athithi dEvO bhava"

"Regard the guest who enters your home as God!"

 

Mother, Father and Teacher are to be regarded as

veritable God since they give us so much that is

priceless in life. We find this quite easy to

understand. Those who give are god-like indeed.

 

But what about the Guest? Why should he be regarded as

God? The guest who enters your home is not the one who

showers you with benevolence. On the other hand, it is

he who needs your benevolence and hospitality. He is

in the position of a 'receiver', not 'giver'. So why

should the Upanishad want him to be regarded as God?

 

The beauty of this Upanishad line is that it gently

changes our perspective of the Givers and Receivers of

the world. It takes away the god-like status from the

former and bestows it upon the latter. We are exhorted

to regard those in life to whom we give -- in

kindness, charity and generosity -- as Gods.

 

We all give and engage in charity because deep down it

makes us "feel good". What is this "feel good factor"?

It is the feeling that makes us feel god-like. It

makes us take a little pride in our own nobility and

charitableness. Although we might not want to admit it

to ourselves even, the fact remains that we often Give

because it makes us secretly feel a bit like God.

 

But that sort of giving is not Upanishadic in

character at all. It is, in fact, the very opposite of

genuine Charitableness. We Give truly only when it is

the Receiver who, by our act of charitableness, we

wish would feel like God... not the other way around.

In true acts of Giving, it is the Receiver who realy

counts, not the Giver.

 

When we entertain a guest -- an "athithi" -- at home,

we must ask ourselves what is our true intention? Is

it to make the guest "feel good" or is it make

ourselves "feel good"? If we brought guests into our

home only to show-off the pomp in the house, our

wealth or to make a statement about our social-status,

then it is not kindness or generosity that is extended

to the "athithi". It is mere vainglory and selfishness

on our part.

 

The Hindu religious scriptures, called "itihAsA-s",

are legendary accounts of the events of God's avataric

life on earth. The "Ramayana" and the "Mahabharata"

are two such splendid scriptural works. In both works

are recounted how the Almighty Himself went as humble

"athithi" to the homes of his devotees, how He

"received" their hospitality and how, as a result,

they came to be blessed with everlasting Grace.

 

In the Ramayana, Sri Rama went as "athithi" to the

abode of Guha, a lowly tribesman of the forests; then

as "athithi" to the abode of the Sage "rshi" Gautama

deep in the forests; then as "athithi" to the humble

hut of the old lady Sabari, who had lain in wait for

years on end for the Lord's visit; and as "athithi"

again to the royal home of Sugriva... Throughout the

pages of the Ramayana, as we see the avatar of God

going as "athithi" from the home of one good devotee

to another's, we see the affirmation, again and again,

of the great Upanishad ideal of "athithi dEvo bhava".

 

(In the Mahabharata, too, we find similar affirmation

of the "athithi" ideal in the account of Lord

Krishna's visit to the home of Vidura.)

 

To conclude, the long and short of the Upanishad

message is simply this:

 

If we all did learn to look upon those to whom we give

as God Almighty; and again, if we all learnt to

sincerely please our "athithi-s" as we might want to

please God, then we can be certain of this: We will be

inspired to give more and more to each other in life

in the true spirit of Charitableness. And a world

filled with such universal generosity and kindness,

where each regards the other as an "athithi", would

surely be God's own kingdom founded upon earth!

 

Regards,

 

dAsan,

Sudarshan

 

--- End forwarded message ---