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Re: UPANAYANAM - what is it?
Jaldhar Vyas <jvyas@ritz.mordor.com> writes:
>In article <2vi76d$rn7@ucunix.san.uc.edu> bnv@po.cwru.edu <Boddu N.
>Venkatesh>
>: I was just wondering if someone could post the exact significance
>: of upanaynam (thread ceremony).
>The Upanayana sanskara is the second birth of a Brahmana. (Which is why
>we are called dwija or twice-born.) After this ceremony, a boy is ready
>to begin study of the Vedas.
>-- Jaldhar
HI jaldhar,
Upanayanam or 'Thread ceremony' is one of the most important vedic rite
in one's life time. As in Hinduism , the purpose of life is it to fulfil
the four fold Purushartha namely Dharma , Artha , Kama and Moksha.
Evolution, the steady pregress from the lower to the higher levels of
being, is the inbuilt plan of existence. The lower creatures busy
themselves with their life sustaining activities but, at the peak of
development which is that of man, a new faculty of intellect develops.
It demands to know the purpose of it all and , in its search, discovers
the omnipresent Divinity.
Upanayanam initiates a person to the vedic way of life by giving them
the Gayatri Mantra , the key of Vedic wisdom. Daily chanting of this
powerful Mantra at appropriate time purifies the intellect and helps
in reaching closer to the divine.
dwija or twice born is true in the sense that before initiation , a
person was leading a life akin to animals (life sustaining activities);
but after Upanayanam he moves to human level (by using his intellect to
sublimate the passions and emotions) and rise to the height of divine,
where he merges in Eternal Bliss.
--- Bhaskar
