Knowledge & Ignorance

It is important for us to understand what constitutes knowledge and what indeed is ignorance.  In today’s world the word knowledge is appropriated by the Information industry.  In their understanding it is defining human tasks, breaking it up into different functions and categories until the answer can be only be either ‘yes’ or ‘no’.  This is then translated by machine language into the binary system mapping answers onto the numeral switches ‘0’ or ‘1’ and creating a program such that the human interacts with the software in a language that he understands which can then be reduced into the binary language that the machine understands.  Thereafter the information is processed based on a knowledge bank which gives preferential answers based on data entered; or otherwise it gives out a database of information, requests for which are keyed into the computer. 

Queerly, this is a great parallel for accessing the universal knowledge that is in the ether – available to one and all.  The only difference is that there is no copyright for this universal knowledge.  And the software is not knowledge based – but Ignorance based! 

In life knowledge fills the gaps created by removing ignorance.  Ignorance is functioning in the universe without the awareness of the way the universe functions.   Most of our belief systems form the bulk of this body of information called ‘Ignorance’.   Belief systems arise from receiving blindly and believing blindly. 

The universe also responds in the binary system.  Your physical body operates in the binary system.  You either breathe in or breathe out.  The heart pumps in or pumps out.  Your pulsating layer has a natural rhythm to it which is in resonance with the universe when you are a child.  As you grow up, your habits and thoughts interfere with this natural rhythm and start creating aberrations.  You are no longer in sync with the universal rhythm.  You can no longer sleep like a baby! 

This estrangement continues to increase as you grow older, and to the extent to which your lifestyle is unnatural.  The more you disregard natural cycles like the sun-cycle and the moon-cycle, the more your bio-rhythm becomes out of step.  The more you are out of step the more it becomes your responsibility to sustain your bodily functions – and believe me, you do not want to be in that position!  The more in-sync you are with natural rhythms, the more nature takes care of your body. 

True knowledge is free and universal.  Only human ignorance is copyrighted!  This is the reason, many ancient poets and writers exclude their name or use a pen-name which expresses gratitude and identity with the universal.  That is the reason, one cannot flatter a jnani.  Because he knows that if you praise his words you are praising the timeless truths of the Universe and submits all praise at the sacred feet of that Holy Presence.  If you find that his words stem from ignorance, he is glad to accept his mistake, since he knows all Ignorance is Individual. 

Research has been done extensively in the field of kinesiology to show that the human body is home to the Universal knowledge bank.  You can attach sensors to a muscle fibre and monitor its response to an utterance.   True utterances indicate a positive response of your muscle fibre and Ignorant utterances release a negative response.  This is also the basis for the lie detector test. 

You can only lie to others, but never to yourself!

Therefore, it is well to be true to oneself and to others.  Only then can a bit of Ignorance be removed and we can get a glimpse of what it is to be one with the universe - and from this oneness shall knowledge flow through us - naturally and effortlessly.     

Upanayana or Brahmopadesha

The Upanayana is a very important traditional ceremony.  When our children are young, and we are also young, we notice the many changes in the lives of our children.  The first tooth, the first roll, the first step and so on.  As we grow along with our children, we notice less and less.  The changes are also less dramatic and the stages are less visible.  The upanayana comes at one such important stage of life which would otherwise have crept in and gone past us without us being much aware of the significant changes in the life of our child. 

The child is a universal being.  You can look at parenting magazines and see how accurately they predict what your toddler will do.  However the same is not true of adults.  We have to see sun signs, horoscopes, planetary positions, stages of life and what not.  Even then it is difficult to predict what an adult will do.  It is because he has acquired a very unique individuality.  This individuality consisting of both positive and negative traits is awakened in the child in stages. 

At the age of 5, the first awakening occurs – it is the awakening of the universal spirit – it is pure joy and simply purposeless.  The child becomes a darling at this age – this age is popularly called ‘fantastic five’.  This is a reminder for the parents as to where they came from and where they ought to be headed.  Friends, the aim of our lives is to attain the purity, truth and bliss of that wonderful age of five, with our adult consciousness – it is to knowingly be pure, centered and blissful.

Usually between the ages of 8 and 11, the first purely positive awakening of the child’s individuality happens.  The child suddenly knows what it is to be sober or quiet and be responsible.  All its positive tendencies from previous births are awakened in a subtle form.  This is a great wave and a great opportunity for parents to harness the potential of their child.  This is the time for the Upanayana.  Of course the appropriate age for their child will only be known to the parents, or perhaps more accurately to the mother.  The next mixed awakening comes with puberty and this surge has both crests and troughs, it often tends to herald a period of tumult and unsettlement.  If by this time, the child has been initiated into the adult world through the upanayana, then it becomes far easier for him to handle the ups and downs of going through puberty and coming into his own.   The Upanayana therefore is the doorstep to this second stage of life.  It is virtually a rebirth.  With the upanayana, the son then becomes a twice born or dwija.  The Upanayana is also called Brahmopadesha.

What is this Brahmopadesha?  It is the beginning of the relationship between father and son.  It is the beginning of a tremendous growth period for the child and the beginning of ‘letting go’ for the parents.  In this ceremony the father imparts a sacred mantra to his son and the mother has the last meal with her baby, the matru bhojana.  After this day, he is not to be treated as a mere child.  The father is to initiate the Gaayatri secretly into the ears of his son.  With this, begins the confidential relationship between father and son to which none is privy. 

The Brahmopadesha puts the father squarely as the middling piece in a continuous father-son tradition that started at least a few thousand years ago.  It is a priceless gem in the hands of the father and the passing on of this gem to his son for him to transfer thereon to his offspring, puts the father for the first time in the position of giving a blessing as opposed to receiving one.  The mother is much more fortunate, for she blesses her child with her whole being at the very first moment of its birth, while the father is clearing the hospital bill at the front desk.  For this single lapse, the father has to wait 8,10 or 11 years before he too can step into the shoes of the mother. 

The Brahmopadesha is not merely a sermon.  It is the beginning of a spiritual relationship between father and son.  It is the bringing nearer of the son, to the spirit of the father, it is the Upanayana also.  ‘Upanayana’ means to ‘bring nearer’.  Through the act of performing this upadesha, the son moves closer to the father, and the father, closer to his son.  It is not just blindly taking him closer, it is with vision; through the opening of the third eye of wisdom.  Is the third eye opened so easily?  Of course not.   It is only the first day, when the son comes to know of the third eye, the eye of wisdom.  The physical world is a strange and beautiful place.  Not everything is the way it seems.  Not everyone is who they seem to be.  Seeing and acting based on what you see through just the two eyes, we err and pay for our mistakes.  The third eye of wisdom and balance gives us the complete vision to make the correct choices.  So, Upanayana, also means – an additional eye.   Performing the upanayana brings the son closer to the father and two of them closer to Him who is once both Father and Mother to all of us.  We are doing a sacred duty and acknowledging our relationship with Him.  Which father would not like his relationship to be acknowledged by his son?  ‘He’ is no exception!

When, you may wonder is the wisdom of the Upanayana useful to us?  Whenever we are at crossroads.  Whenever we are at an intersection.  Whenever we are at a ‘sandhya’!  Sandhya is a junction, a fork at which we have to decide which way to go.  With all the tendencies of the child awakening, life presents itself as a series of alternatives, in which he has to choose either this way or that.  To help him recognize that he is coming to a fork, the father shows him the junction between the day and the night, the sandhya kaala.  This is a junction we come across every day.  If the father can train his son to see both sides of this junction with awareness and live his daily life by always choosing light, he has successfully taught his son a very important lesson of life.

And what is that most important lesson that says we have chosen by the light?  It is vandana, or gratitude.  It is the attitude of gratitude to Life for all that we receive.  It is gratitude at every junction of life, for the freedom of choice we have.  It is sandhya vandana. 

And to whom do we owe this gratitude?  To Savita [wrongly mistaken to be feminine gender commonly, the word ‘Savita’ is actually masculine and refers to the Sun] or the Source from which we all arise, that source which is worthy of worship, tat savitur varENyaM – to that deep and internal source and substratum, we show this gratitude, this reverence. 

And how do we show this gratitude? 

By meditating – dheemahi –

on that effulgent and divine source, bhargO  dEvasya  –

of all the three worlds –  bhoor, bhuvah, svah - the earthly, the astral and the divine,

of all the three aspects of our identity -  physical, mental and spiritual,

of the three intensities of our expression – heart, mind and soul,  as well as

the three modes of expression – word, thought and deed.

And by doing so, may we receive that blessing of wisdom.  May our intellect be properly guided – dhiyo yo nah prachodayaat.  This shall be the prayer that the father teaches the son – the Gaayatri Mantra:

OM bhoorbhuva svaH |                           

               tatsaviturvarENyaM bhargO  dEvasya  dheemahi |

               dhiyO  yOnaH  prachOdayaat ||

In saying this great mantra, originally discovered by the great sage Vishwamitra and that which is part of the Rg. Veda, our forefathers have invariably linked it with the Sun.  When the sun’s rays fall on the plants, the chlorophyll reacts with carbon-di-oxide and releases the elixir of life, oxygen.  The plants verily swallow sunlight, digest and exude prana or life force.  Consuming plant food, animals and human beings thrive.  Thus the Sun becomes the manifest source of our existence, he becomes our oldest forefather who watches over us and provides food every day.  

In the morning, just as one readies one’s house ahead of an honoured visitor’s arrival, the parents – more often the mother than the father - teach the son to get up before sun rise, finish his ablutions and welcome the foremost of his forefathers, the Sun, Aditya.  During this time, his mind is clear and he is able to connect straightaway to his soul.  Therefore he prays to Gaayatri, the form of the divine source that is deeply spiritual, so that his awareness of the deepest recesses of his soul is heightened.

At noon, his mind has become active and is at the height of its expression and the son is therefore taught to pray to Savitri, the form of the divine that rules over the realm of the mind.  By dusk, the word has become his dominant expression and to cleanse that field, the vatu is taught to pray to Saraswati, the divine form of all knowledge and expression.  The evening prayer is done just prior to sundown, a send off to the Sun God with gratitude for all that he has bestowed on us. 

By remembering the sun at dawn, noon and dusk, the three junctions of the day, we perform the Sandhya Vandana and the sacred Gaayatri Mantra shall remind us to express gratitude to all of life and receive the wisdom that will brighten our intellect and enable us to make a choice that will lead us towards the light, towards that divine source from whence we have come. 

It is important to note that the Brahmopadesha is perhaps the most significant of the 16 samskaaras.  Each of these samskaaras is performed at a different stage of life.  This is because various desires and tendencies that we carry from previous births become manifest at various stages of life.  These tendencies are called vaasanaas.  Vaasanaas are like seeds that are carried with us and sprout at different ages.   Such tendencies and weaknesses exist in everyone.   At that time, if the parents or elders are able to perform the appropriate samskaara and impart the correct wisdom by doing the prescribed samskaaras, we can put our potentials in a proper perspective and adopt a healthy and vibrant attitude in life.  We can fry the negative seeds so that they don’t sprout and plant the healthy seeds in a nurturing environment.  Thereby, we can mitigate negative tendencies and promote a wholesome attitude to life.   

The Sandhya vandanam is a votary of brief rituals each of which is a powerful aid for health and well being and vastly significant in doing the one task for which we take birth - remembrance of our connection with the Divine.  The central and most imprtant ritual is the Gaayatri Japa sincerely with or without knowing the meaning, that awakens the intellect and awareness of the Divine that is hidden in the cave of our hearts.  In a sincere vatu, the power of the Gaayatri when repeated 1008 times continuously can result in the positive rising of the bio-electric current within the body which will remove all untoward inclinations from previous births granting us a fresh slate from which to lead our life.  This will mitigate the ill effects of hidden tendencies that will appear during the life of any human being based on the karma of his previous life, and firmly establishes the boy in the sacred lineage into which he is born – so that he may be a shining beacon for generations to come. 

OM  shaantih shaanthih shaantihi

Shri rangapriya sadgurave namah

With Narayana smaranams