UPANAYANAM AND SANDHYAVANDANAM---2

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Friends,When a boy is old enough to chant mantras and understand the significance of Vihita karma anushtana, the Upanayana of a boy is required to be performed. The age of eight has been prescribed for Upanayana Samskara. The word,Upanayana means "taking or leading of the student near or to the Guru." It is also called as the ceremony of Brahmopadesam--taking the young student near Brahman, that is to say, introducing him to Brahmajignasa, the path of Brahma.

Upanayanam is the initiation of a boy into Brahmacharya Asrama and is a prelude to bachelorhood. It is one of the Samskaras or rites which reconstruct the personality,reform the mind, purify it and re-build it. It makes the person receiving it a Dwija, atwice-born. The boy is physically born first into the world; now,he is born into the Sadhaka world. He becomes a Brahmachari, a person who moves towards Brahman. Thus it is a very significant day in the lives of the boys, a day they must long remember with joy and thankfulness. The initiation is done with the Upadesam of the GAYATRI MANTRAM which is a prayer that calls upon the glorious power that pervades the Sun and thre worlds to arouse, awaken and strengthen the intelligence,so that it may lead to intense Sadhana. The Brahmachari vows himself into a life of Sadhana. In the case of students of Krishna Yajurveda, there are four

vratas between purvanga called Upanayana and uttaranga called samavartana, which is celebrated when the student comes back home from Gurukulam after completing the discipline of Brahmacharya and study of Vedas and is eligible for entering into household life. These four vratas are prajapatya,saumya,agneya and vaisvadeva. For Rig-veda it is different. Each Veda has its own vratas.A student is required to observe strictly the rules of Brahmacharya if he were to master the mantras. Here lies the importance of the Upanayana ceremonies. (to be continued)G.Balasubramanian