Upanayanam

                                                               

                                   When a human being comes to outer world from mother’s womb, he is considered as another creature in this world.  What makes him different from other creatures is the concept that he has higher intellectual thinking capacity which is found rarely in others. Human being can evolve this capacity to fulfill his spiritual and social desires. Nowadays you can see many ads which tell you to use their products to increase brain’s capacity. But you know that they are not going to help you. We have solution for this In sanatana dharma. Our rishis  did find a unique spiritual way to evolve our intellectual capacity, which is called  gayatri mantra. Chanting and meditating  gayatri mantra  has several uses which includes evolvement of spiritual and intellectual consciousness.  To chant and meditate gayatri mantra, we need an authority. That authority gaining ceremony is called as Upanayanam.

                   Upa means up, nayanam means journey towards upper side, totally it indicates boy’s beginning of spiritual journey. Appropriate time for Upanayanam is when boy becomes eight year old. In worst case it’s allowed  till he completes  twelve years . normally boys first eight years of life is surrounded with materialistic desires . After that he should be encouraged and trained to think beyond materialistic world. This training includes waking up early, doing sandhyavandanm and chanting gayatri mantra at least twenty times a day. This will bring discipline in boy’s life and  helps to achieve success in educational and professional life as well. There are four very important aspects in Upanayanam ritual. Those are 1. Matrabhojanam 2. Nireeksanam  3.Yagnopavitdharam 4. Brahmopdesha.

Matrubhojanam :   matrubhojanam means having food from mother’s hand. Till the time of 8 year, boy use to depend on mother for every other work. From now he should be trained to be self dependent. Here In this ritual, for last time he can have food directly from mother’s hand. After Upanayanam he should eat food by himself.

 Nireekshanam : Nireekshanam means seeing each other.  Till the day of upanayan father and son’s relation was limited to this particular status. On the day of Upanayanam father should see son as his shishya(student), and son should see father, as his guru. The moment in which both father and son see each other as Shishya and guru should be auspicious. That’s why we find a good muhurtha for that ceremony. We have veda mantra chanting and elders blessings in that moment to make that ceremony more auspicious.

Yagnopaveetha dharanam:  yagnopaveetha is a sacred thread made by cotton or grass called munja. Boy is entitled to wear yagnopaveetha on the day of Upanayanam. It’s always reminds us spiritual practices, which should be performed by us.

 Bramhopadesha : Brahma means veda. Here particularly its gayatri mantra .this is an auspicious ceremony in which father gives gayatri mantra upadesh to his son. After that he receives bhiksha from elders and starts his days as brahmachari.

There are significant meanings behind every ritual in our sanathana tradition. Let’s not follow our tradition blindly. Let’s try to understand meanings behind every ritual, which makes our belief strong. Strong believes makes our lives strong.