Qualities of a Brahmacarin

[Guest guest]

Qualities of a Brahmacarin

(HinduDharma: Brahmacaryasrama)

 

Receive pages from Hindu Dharma in your email

 

The celibate-student must perform samidadhana every day, beg for his

food and take no salt. If he is a Brahmin he must keep a staff

(danda) or palasa, if he is a ksatriya a staff of asvattha. The

vaisya brahmacarin has a staff of udumbara. The staff helps the

student to retain his learning. It is similar to the lightening

conductor or the aerial and is scientifically valid as to "fix"

these hymns. That is why it should be kept-to safeguard the treasure

called the Vedas that the student has acquired. The brahmacarin must

wear the skin of the black antelope(krsnajina) and must not wear any

upper cloth. There are rules the electrician has to observe for his

safety: he must stand on a rubber plank or wear rubber gloves during

work. Similarly there are rules prescribed by our great men of the

past to protect the Atmic electricity, the Atmic energy.

 

Today we perform upakarma as a one-day ceremony without keeping up

the study of the Vedas. We do not go through the utsarjana at all.

For our failure to do it we mutter a mantra in expiation, the mantra

called "Kamokarsit"which says, " I did not sin. Kama(desire) did it.

Anger did it. . . " There is no need to repeat this mantra if we

perform the utsarjana.

 

Brahmacarya implies adherence to a number of rules with regard to

food, the performance of rites and the observance of vratas. If a

brahmacarin makes any mistake in chanting the Vedas, in matter of

tone or enunciation, he must do penance for the same on upakarma

day. On this occasion he eats no more than a few sesame seeds;

otherwise he fasts the whole day; and on the following day he offers

1,008 sticks of the palasa in the sacred fire chanting the Gayatri.

He should do this every year. Nowadays brahmacarins perform this

rite only on the day following the first upakarma following the

upanayana. Actually this a rite all Brahmins are expected to

perform, though we find today householders doing only Gayatri-japa.

When you merely mutter the mantra you feel sleepy and you may go

wrong in the japa. But such will not be the case if you also perform

a homa as you chant the Gayatri. Sticks offered in the fire must be

those of palasa, if not of the asvattha; darbha grass may be used if

the other two are not available.

 

At mealtime the student can have his fill. The only restriction is

that he must not give free rein to his appetite. He must beg for his

food for such a practice makes him humble. The sastras do not

require him to fast. The student must be nourished properly during

his growing years. But he must, at the same time, learn to develop

sattvic qualities and there must be nothing rude or rough about him.

It is by serving his guru that these qualities are inculcated in

him.

 

During the twelve years in the gurukula the student must learn his

recension of the Vedas and also the caturdasa-vidya. On completion

of his stay in the gurukula he performs the samavartana, returns

home and marries.

http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part17/chap4.htm