Tuesday 22 January 2008

Samskaaraas

It was Ramanujachary, around a thousand years back, who rebelled against this philosophy, in spite of the fact that his own guru, Yadavprakash, was a very strong exponent of Shaivism. Ramanujacharya broke away from both Dwaitism, as well as Advaitism, which was also prevalent, and propounded his new theory of Visihtadvaitism, thereby ushering in the beginning of Srivaishnavism

What is Samskaara?
SamskArA means "betterment" ( Sams ) of a thing ( kaaram ). The cleansing process set in motion by the observance of SamskArAs leads to the betterment of life and qualifies a person for spiritual upliftment. According to the Tarka sAsthrAs , the word SamskArA is defined as " an impression on the memory " Steady practice of scriptural injunctions establishes firm tracks in the memory so that the practitioner does not swerve from the correct path The samskArAs cover the life span of a Hindu starting from the time of formation (conception ) of the embryo (nishEkam) to the time of cremation in the burning ghaat (smasaanam ). Agni is an indispensable part of the samskArAs, and is therefore revered, being a witness to the samskArAs. Even cremation is considered as an offering of the ghee-smeared body to Agni as the ultimate offering. Some of the samskArAs are simple and brief,yet others are elaborate and require continuous performance over many days. Some of the samskArAs are done at home, whereas the others call for lots of space as well as time. A number of samskArAs have to be performed daily,some to be practised twice a month, some once a month, while other samskArAs have to be performed once a year or at least once in one's life time.

There are forty samskArAs out of which the following two sets are relevant here
  1. A set of seven starting from GarbhadhAnA to Chudakramaa
  2. Another set of seven starting from UpanayanA to VivAhA

All the seven samskArAs prior to Upanayanaa are performed by the parents on behalf of the child, since it has not reached the stage of discriminating knowledge. These are:
  1. GARBHADHAANAM: Seeding of the wife’s womb by the husband , leading to embryo formation is known as GarbhAdhAnam .The life cycle rituals of the Hindu begins at this point
  2. PUMSAVANA SAMSKAARAA: This is to be performed during the third month of pregnancy, a stage preceding the rapid growth of the life in the mother’s womb.
  3. SIMANTHONAYANA SAMSKAARAA: This samskArA (hair parting of the pregnant mother) has to be performed either in the sixth month or in the eighth month of pregnancy.
  4. JAATHA KARMAA: This is performed soon after the child's birth. The tongue of the new –born child is touched thrice with ghee to the accompaniment of appropriate Vedic mantrAs praying for protection and long life for the new born.
  5. NAAMAKARANAA: This fifth samskArA is about naming of the child on its eleventh day of its birth.
  6. ANNAPRAASANAM: This deals with the feeding of the baby for the first time with solid food at the age of six months. ManthrAs are recited, while they feed the child.
  7. CHUDAKARMAA: The last of the pre-upanayana samskArA is chuda Karmaa for a male child, when a tuft or sikhA is created.

Upanayanam
Education of a child normally starts at the age of five. When it reaches the age of eight, has developed skills in speech and language, and therefore is considered eligible for receiving Vedic Instruction. Mata, Pita, Guru Daiywam: The parents, Mata and Pita do their duty by bringing the child to the stage of Upanayam. Upanayana means bringing one close to the guru or the teacher, who initiates the child into Veda vidya. A sacred thread ceremony known as Upanayanam is performed by the father and the boy is blessed with the initiation into reciting the sacred Gayathri Manthram. Next, his Vedic instruction begins with the proper guru. From this stage, he has to follow various routines. The first one is Sandhyavandam.

Sandhyavandanam
Vandanam means worship. Both worship and meditation are involved in Sandhyavandanam. Sandhya means the time of union. The time which relates to the union of two things, i.e. the time between the night and morning (first junction Dawn), between forenoon and afternoon (second junction Noon) and between afternoon and evening (third junction, Dusk); Sandhya means dawn, noon and dusk. Sandhyavandanam means a ritual done at the time of three junctions, Dawn, Noon and Dusk. Sandhyavandana is a prescribed ‘nityakarma’.

Upanishads speak very highly of Sandhya times. It says that benefits are far more during Sandhya times than that at other times. Recent researches have also brought out abundant release of beneficial energy at sun rise and withdrawal of non-beneficial energy at sun set.

Though Upanishads refer to two Sandhya-names Sun rise and Sun set , the wise men of the past had added one more 'Sandhya' namely 'Madhyanika' or mid-day. Sun rises in east , moves upward , reaches zenith , and then descends to west. The point at zenith represents change from upwards to downwards. This sandhya is considered to be beneficial for worship of 'Pithru Devatas' - that is devatas who are instrumental for one to get son , grandson , etc and also one to be a son or grandson , etc. However, due to time constraints, and other reasons, this procedure (Madhyanika) is generally given the go by. So, the population growth cannot be entirely due to performance of Madhyanikas!!!

Now the budding Srivaishnavite is ready for the next stage of Samskaras.

1 comment:

Srirangam Gopal said...

Excellent work. It must also be noted that prayers are invoked to bless the family with a Male offspring ( during Bhumsavana samskara ). Interesting this samskara is done in the 3rd month ( for scientifically also this is the month in pregnancy during which the sex of the baby is firmed up ).

Unfortunately today, most of the people have forgotten this samskara and is conveniently added to the Seemantha Samskara which essentially dilutes the purpose of this samskara.

Best regards

Gopal