ACHYUTHA DIGGAVI: UPANAYANAM TO YOUNG VASUDEVA when he was just five years old.

A Upanayanam goes like this

The Mathru Bhojanam It was hardly seven in the morning, but the priest hurried me and my eight year-old son to the leaves. The auspicious time for the main part of the ceremony was nearing. Three brahmacharis sat at the other three leaves. The rest of the congregation - my husband, his parents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends - gathered around us and watched me feed my son. Good natured ribbing followed: "You're supposed to be feeding your son, not eating it all up yourself!" "Go easy on the ghee, will ya." "No more stealing from mama's plate, N. This is the last time." As with many Hindu rituals, especially those involving children, the mathru bhojanam is a poignant affair. It is one of the principal rituals in the upanayanam ceremony and it signifies the last time a son may share food from his mother's plate and the last time a mother may feed her son with her own hands. In fact, the entire upanayanam ceremony, which is almost as big as a Hindu wedding, is one big poignant set of rituals. Not long ago, this sacred thread investiture ceremony prepared a young Brahmin boy for the study of the vedas and marked his passage from his own home to that of his teacher's. The vatu - The Sacred Thread, In the course of the ceremony, usually performed right when the boy turns seven, the boy's hair is shaved off, the sacred thread is placed over his shoulder, he is initiated into the ritual of reciting the Gayathri mantram and performing the Sandhyavandanam by his father, he asks for alms (biksha - items that will help him on his journey to his teacher's house) from his family and he's sent off on his way with his little bag of offerings slung on his shoulder. No matter how purely ritualistic the upanayanam ceremony has now become (young boys don't actually go away to a teacher's house these days and the ceremony itself is now performed minutes before young Hindu men get married just so that they have a thread around their shoulder during the wedding ceremony), it is impossible not to be affected during the rituals. The mathru bojhanam, the biksha ritual and the point at which the son has to worship his father by washing the father's feet are the most difficult to countenance. It was gut wrenching to see him standing there with his bag asking for alms (bikshaan dehi). Most poignant of all was the grace and equanimity with which N handled the proceedings. A few days before the ceremony the priest walked him through the big day, taking him step by step through all the rituals. He woke up at three thirty in the morning because the muhurtham (the auspicious minutes) was only a few hours away, he followed the priest's detailed instructions and recited the mantras meticulously. He patiently bore all the things many different people were doing to him, pulling him in many directions at once. At the end of it all, he found three kids near his own age among our family and was running around the hall playing tag, screaming at the top of his lungs. Towards the evening we said goodbye to all the guests, headed home.

Friday, February 20, 2009

UPANAYANAM TO YOUNG VASUDEVA when he was just five years old.

UPANAYANA (SACRED THREAD)

Generally young boys take upanayana at around eight years, but Madhyageha Bhatta, seeing his son's life of spiritual enlightenment, arranged for the ceremony to be performed when Vasudeva was just five years old. For Madhyageha Bhatta and Vasudeva both, this is a marked change is their lives, especially for Vasudeva, for now he had formally taken to brahmacarya training and an acceptance that now childhood was over and that this was a time for Vedic study, spiritual pursuits, initiation into chanting of sacred mantras, worship of Surya-Narayana at the junctions of morning, noon and night (sandhyavandhanam), and always wearing the sacred thread of the Brahmin. In fact, this time of life for one who accepts upanayana, is considered one's second birth.
Madhyageha Bhatta showed his pure and simple son how to light to homa and how to perform the oblations into the fire after cleansing oneself internally by mantra, and externally by bathing, wearing clean cloth, the sipping of water called acaman, and performance of nyasa (touching parts of the body with mantras). Before beginning this Madhyageha Bhatta contacted learned Brahmanas to find the proper date as to when this ceremony should be performed. His astrologers had selected Vrsabha Lagna, the bull for steadiness.
According to astrological texts, the Vrsabha Lagna is considered a great asset to one's determination for completing a task, so in the matter of upanayana, or receiving the sacred triple thread of the brahmacari, Vrsabha or Taurus, aids determination, sensual control, and the undertaking of heavy loads such as study and celibacy. This lagna is said also to be very auspicious as Lord Sri Krsna was born with this lagna.
The fabulous ceremony that followed, the guru (in this case his father, Madhyageha Bhatta) sat down before the sacred fire and handed his wonderful son his karam chappals (padukas - peg shoes) and rod of the brahmacari, and new yellow cloth. Oblations were offered into the fire amidst the joyous crowd of onlookers, but in private the triple cord (sacred thread) was placed on Vasudeva's body and the Gayatri mantra was whispered into the right ear. After the shaving of his head and having the ritualistic bath, he put on yellow cloth, and the mekala kusa grass belt was then placed around the boy's waist. He was shown how to sip water before eating or performing any kind of worship, and also shown how to perform prana ahuti's (om pranaya swaha, om apanaya swaha, om vyanaya swaha, om udanaya swaha, om samanaya swaha) before taking his meals.
This was so natural for him to learn, but made him more hungry just chanting the mantras, as his digestive airs began to work. As a formality one is explained the meanings behind brahmacari life, then there is also acceptance of vows of celibacy, simplicity, and study of the Vedas. Everyone who saw young Vasudeva in his pure beauty accepting his sacred thread were so fascinated by his features that they could not take their eyes off him. The demigods and their wives also came in invisible forms, and enjoying the festive scene, glorified Vasudeva on this all-auspicious day. The sound of kettle drums was heard from above, and showers of flowers and flower petals rained from the sky.

SADHYA VANDANAM
Vasudeva then learned from his father how to perfrom sacred sandhya vandanam. "Sandhya" means at the conjunctions and "vandanam" means prayers.

SNAKE DEMON VANQUISHED
Just after Vasudeva returned back to Pajakaksetra after his upanayana, Vasudeva encountered a huge five-headed snake demon. Many believed this snake to be the demon Maniman who was killed by Bhima during the Mahabharata war. They say that he was so envious of Bhima that he took his birth in the woods near Pajakaksetra just to try to kill the young Vasudeva who, in his second incarnation of Vayu, was Bhimasena.
Once Vasudeva and his friends were in the area of the Durga Vimana as usual, just nearby Pajakaksetra, when Vasudeva passed by the place where the snake demon Maniman dwelt near the thickets and bushes. As he passed by, the snake demon pounced and attacked Vasudeva with his sharp and poisoned fangs. The local people, upon hearing that Vasudeva had been bitten by this deadly creature, were on the verge of fainting.

As everyone knows, when a small boy or five or six gets bitten by a snake, he needs immediate medical attention in order to survive the poisonous venom inflicted into his system. However, this small boy Vasudeva was attacked by a huge monster of a snake with five heads. The attack was unpredicted, fierce and quick, but Vasudeva, keeping a cool head, vanquished that snake demon with the big toe of his powerful little foot. Looking at the place of the bit that was inflicted by Maniman, there was no wound to be seen. Further more, Vasudeva was not affected by this incident in any way.
Madhya Vijaya (3.41) describes that this Vasudeva, who has accepted the form of a small boy, is only a semblance of such. Definitely he is that Mukhyaprana who was sent to earth at the request of all the demigods including Lord Brahma, Lord Siva, Lord Indra, Lord Candra and Brihaspati.
To this day one can visit the place where this incident happened. Between Vimangiri and Pajakaksetra a small shrine has been erected around an impression of the snake demons hoods pressed into the solid rock, his head being turned into a paste.

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