Is Ego such a bad thing in a Student's life ? Swadyaya -yagna !

[Guest guest]

Thank you professorji for directing me to this wonderful link on

your precious website.

 

i reproduce here for the benefit of other readers the following

passage which caught my attention and made a good reading .

 

" It says: 'Do your duty in a spirit of dedication'. You may

ask: 'What is the meaning of dedication in the context of my daily

chore of studies? To whom do I dedicate myself? Why? What is the

outcome of such dedication? How does it alter the picture?' It does;

how it does so we will now understand through an example.

 

Think of your mother at home, far away; she is looking forward to

your returning from college with a feather in your academic cap. She

expects you to follow certain norms in your daily activities and she

has great hopes about your returning to her more balanced, more

mature, more knowledgeable, than when she sent you to college. You

certainly do not want to disappoint her. Now comes the crucial

technique of yajna. It says, for example, 'Dedicate all your actions

to your mother, do everything because your mother would like you to

do it that way. Avoid certain things because your mother would want

you to do so'. In short, you live and act as your mother would want

you to. In other words you have dedicated your every step to your

mother. Dedication is the voluntary acceptance of suffering for

another's sake and, in this case, for your mother's sake, that is,

if you think being a good student for your mother's sake is a

suffering. This is the karma yoga of the student who has dedicated

all his actions to his beloved mother. The consequences of such a

dedication must be seen to be believed. At almost every step one

experiences an alchemy taking place in one's mind; a constant war

will be waged in the inner recesses of the mind between the good

vAsanAs and the not-so-good vAsanAs and each time the conviction

that one is doing things for the sake of one's mother at home will

gradually resolve issues and tilt them towards the side of the

better vAsanAs. Such a student may be said to be doing svAdhyAya-

yajna, the yajna of study.

 

This is exactly what the gItA describes in its classification

of 'doer' as 'satvic' (the ideally noble) in gItA 18 - 26:

 

 

mukta-sango-naham-vAdI dhRty-utsAha-samanvitaH /

siddhy-asiddhyor-nirvikAraH kartA sAtvika ucyate //

Free from attachment, free from egoism,

full of a fixed impersonal resolution and a calm rectitude of zeal,

unelated by success and undepressed by failure,

such a one is called the sAtvika-kartA. "

 

Wonderful , Professorji !

 

In Taittriya upanishad , in Sikshavalli , it is said

 

" Let your mother be a goddess unto you. Let your father be a god

unto you. Let your teacher be a god unto you. Let your guest be a

god unto you. " (i-xi-2-4)

 

i would even go a step further and say that dedicate all your

actions to the Divine Mother ( the Mother of the universe ) before

undertaking any academic or spiritual pursuits.

 

The Goddess indeed in all powerful! It is Devi herself ( Kali ma) who

blessed the great poet Kalidasa with speech and eloquence and he was

able to write such classic plays like Kumarasambhavam, Meghadhootam,

Raghuvamsham, Malavika Agnimitram and Shankuntalam etc- due to Devi's

infinite grace ( anugraham) From a dumb person, Kalidasa became a

world renowned poet and is called the Shakespeare of India! We all

know of 'mukakavi' ( the dumb poet) also who was made eloquent by the

grace of Ambaal. (Mukambika)

 

The temple deity who whispered 'equations ' in the ears of Sri

Ramanujam is none other than 'NAMAGIRI Thayar OF NAMAKKAL', THE

CONSORT OF LION GOD NARASIMHA ! It is believed that the Goddess

visited him during the dreams and wrote equations on his

tongue! and it is the same Family deity who advised his mother to

send her only son to England to pursue his dreams!

 

In India before the child starts attending School the family priest

blesses the child and recites this prayer

 

Saraswathi Namasthubhyam, varade Kama roopini,

Vidhyarambham karishyami, sidhir bhavathu me sada.

 

My salutations to Goddess Saraswathi,

Who can take any form,

Who is the bestower of all boons,

And I start learning now,

With the prayer to her,

To make it very effective.

 

Professorji, In the India of today , there was even a cotroversy

about chanting the Saraswati vandana in the schools every morning

before commencement of studies.

 

I think it will be a good idea to initiate the Daily prayer sytem in

the Schools so that the student begins the day in a spirit

of 'surrender' to the god/ess ! Let each student do manasika prayer

to the higher power ( The chritian God, The HINDU deities or ALLAH

etc) but let the student begin the day in a reverential mood.

 

As our beloved Mahatma Gandhi said

 

" A balanced intellect presupposes a harmonious growth of body, mind

and soul.

 

Athato Siksha yagna .....

[Guest guest]

To what I have heard, it should be as follows

Kaka chyeshta vako dhyanam

Alpahari Shvanna nidra grihastyaagi

vidyarthina pancha lakshnam

that is the sharpness of a crow, the focus of a king

fisher, the sleep of a dog and besides this he should not crave for

food and therby laso leave his home these are the qualities of an

ideal student

Thanks and regards

Rakesh

[Guest guest]

Namaste.

 

Interesting. Despite the deja vu, I can't quite place this verse. Can

someone give the source and correct transliteration as the

words 'chyeshta' and 'vako' look like mistakes.

 

Well, SwAna nidra (alertness in sleep) is impossible for gluttons.

Dogs are indeed a blessed lot as they are alert in sleep despite being

voracious!

 

Why translate grihastyAgi as one who leaves one's house? Grih is

indicative of all that are held, i.e. possessions. I think grihastyAgi

should therefore mean one devoid of possessiveness, which can be had

without leaving one's house. That suits the students of today fine

because they don't go to gurukulas.

 

Thanks and praNAms.

 

Madathil Nair

_______________

 

advaitin , " Rakesh " <raknath wrote:

>

> To what I have heard, it should be as follows

> Kaka chyeshta vako dhyanam

> Alpahari Shvanna nidra grihastyaagi

> vidyarthina pancha lakshnam

> that is the sharpness of a crow, the focus of a king

> fisher, the sleep of a dog and besides this he should not crave for

> food and therby laso leave his home these are the qualities of an

> ideal student

[Guest guest]

Re: Is Ego such a bad thing in a Student's life ? Swadyaya -yagna !

 

 

advaitin , " Madathil Rajendran Nair "

<madathilnair wrote:

>

> Namaste.

>

> Interesting. Despite the deja vu, I can't quite place this verse.

Can

> someone give the source and correct transliteration

 

Namaste,

 

This seems to be a pedagogical 'subhaaShita':

 

Vaidika Samskaras (contd..,)

 

Dr. S. Yegnasubramanian

 

http://64.233.167.104/search?

q=cache:Pj9D6M5vbDkJ:www.svbf.org/sringeri/journal/\

vol5no1-2/samskaras.pdf+vidyarthi+lakshanam & hl=en & ct=clnk & cd=1 & gl=us

 

OR

 

http://tinyurl.com/2fhf25

 

" ....the child prays for power of listening (since Vedas are

taught orally only) and is taught the mantras

in a particular format.

He is asked

to observe things like a crow (kAka-dRRiShTi:);

with attention of a crane (baka-dhyAnam);

never to have deep sleep, like a dog (shvAna-nidrA);

meager food (alpa AhAram);

simple dress (jiirNa vastram);

These are called the characteristics of the student

(etat vidyArthi lakshaNam)... "

 

 

 

Regards,

 

Sunder