Knowledge as the Ultimate Goal: Hindu Attitude Towards Learning; Examining Rites and Mantras in Vaidika Dharma

• In Event: Eastern wisdom traditions and implications for education

Proposal

My salutations onto the guru!

A guru is one who removes the spiritual ignorance of a student, such that once the student finally knows the Truth i.e. Self, s/he leaves the guru and becomes a teacher to other seekers. The focus is on Self-Knowledge, the ultimate goal of every Hindu. This is guru-shishya parampara, an ancient pedagogy and methodology that is followed even today in Hindu classical studies. Hence before starting any project students take their guru’s name for the successful completion of their venture, as well as to offer gratitude. Gratitude is ingrained in the culture, not just towards everything in the world, but especially directed towards those who confer knowledge on us and take us from darkness to light. A guru leads me to understand that I am complete consciousness sat-chit-ananda, not limited by name and form (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 1.3.28)1. A guru who is the medium via whom such a grand vision is transferred is indeed exalted. When one acquires such wisdom one looks with equal vision at the brahmin, the cow, the elephant, the dog, and the dog-eater! No one is less or more than the other, as all are the same brahman with a different body and name (Bhagavad Geeta, 5.18)2. Children are taught couplets from ‘Guru Stotram’3 by Adi Shankaracharya, that the guru is God, the trinity Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva all are but one’s guru, hence the guru is deserving of our salutations, our worship. When students go to school their morning prayers consist of the Shanti Mantra from Krishna Yajur Veda (Taittiriya Upanishad, 2.2.2)4, “may we student-teacher duo be blessed, may we be protected from negative forces, may we grow and flourish together, and may we attain great heights of learning together by avoiding unnecessary egoistic issues between us”. The Taittiriya Upanishad 11.15 goes one step further and exhorts graduating students to ‘Speak the Truth, Follow the Path of Dharma and Lead a Righteous Life’, and so on. To bring about this required behavior in daily life many rites are conducted in a Hindu’s journey. One such sacrament is Aksharabhyasam6, the other is Saraswati Pooja7. The former is performed when the child is three or five, the family visits a Saraswati temple and the child is made to utter ‘OM’ and/ or write it in rice with the right hand held by an uncle or father. In the latter on Vasanta Panchami day of the Hindu Almanac (Feb 10th in 2019), Goddess Saraswati is worshipped by all students as an embodiment of learning, wisdom and fine arts. People wear yellow, chant, dance and sing, worship her with flowers and incense, place their books before her and ask for her blessings! Thus we see how via various rituals, festivals and chantings the attitudes of gratitude, humility, reverence and appreciation are ingrained in a Hindu child towards learning and the learned from birth, whether s/he is a teacher or a student.

Author

• Kavita K. Meegama, George Washington University, Washington DC