When the routine life was getting totally stereotypic and mundane, life
called me to be part of a brahmopadesham of my distaaaaaant cousin. I literally
meant what I wrote. By “To be part of…” means, to be one important person for
the event and not just a mere spectator sitting in the chairs meant for
audience and stare at the people(mostly women) wearing what-not-types of
jewellery and top-of-the-brand-list clothes.
My uncle wanted us(our family of me, my bro and parents) to be part of
the function, especially with me, as I was required to get the Guy – who was
getting the sacred thread put across his left shoulders thus marking his
initiation into Vedic studies – to the mantap (the stage) by holding him up in
my arms (like how one holds a child). This ritual has to be done by a person
who is related to the guy in a certain way (brother I guess). I loved the lime
light, the red carpet welcome, the sense of being given so much of importance –
all of which fizzed out once the ritual was over :D
But nevertheless, it was a welcome change to my life which was otherwise
not even least exciting on any count. On positive side, this function helped me
to get closer to that fraction of my relatives which I knew existed, but never
got chance to interact with – thanks to some age-old issue between the various
families. It even gave me access to several facts and data, which my mind
started processing and became busy with(a change for it too, it must have
felt). The one which it constantly shooted to my conscious part of brain was this
– I could be the only few fortunate guys in my community of GSB, where I have
cousins from the own siblings of my dad as well as his half-siblings. Too much
of a puzzle for your grey cells to decode? Well to put it plainly, my
grandfather had married twice in his life time. Don’t be shocked, he didn’t
break the Hindu marriage law. When his first better-half said bye to this
material world after giving birth to their fifth progeny, My grandfather, not
happy with his contribution to the Human resource asset of our nation, decided
to go ahead and tie the knot once again and keep his good work going. Thanks to
his good work, otherwise you wouldn’t have been reading this blog. You are
right, I’m younger son of the eldest son of my grandfather’s second wife!!! Too
much to decipher? Well that was precisely how I was feeling when my mind was
cooking up all these stats for me in that function.
It was all a mixed bag of learning experience for me. I was interacting
with my relative back here in Mysore after we returned. He was particularly
disappointed about how this tradition of Upanayana (aka Brahmopadesham) has got transformed into a mere customary
function. I got to know from him that actually one is supposed to visit the
priest’s home (who performed the ritual for the guy) or any such elderly scholar (could be grandfather or priest of any community temple of ours) for at least couple of days
and get to learn all the things from him – basics of our vedas, how to do
sandhyavandhana etc properly. This is because there is so much to learn and it
is impossible to do that in that short time available during the official
function. More than anything, this step denotes that one has attained adulthood
(not from biological sense) and is now responsible enough in life to stand up
on his own and view all the things religiously – which includes the
transformation of baby love to your mom into ardent respect to her as god.
Alas, the changing time changes everything and makes only the change as
constant in this changing universe!! Modi recently informed the people of this
country that to rule a State, the ruler has to be optimistic always and also wished that everyone in this country to be optimistic as well. I think I was a little pessimistic of sort in the previous paragraph talking about thinning up of the traditions and customs in people with time. So Let me see
if I, in my capacity as author of this blog, can be optimistic here and see the
other side of the things. In the town of puttur, where this function happened,
I visited our GSB community-maintained
Lord Lakshmi venkateswara temple which is located in the heart of the town in
main road. The Temple was closed when I
went there. But that didn’t stop me from glancing at the notice board put up at
the entrance. It was put up to announce the scholarship schemes to the needy
students who are doing professional courses. I was overwhelmed with pride
at once. I can list down numerous such charity events that our community
trusts, organizations, temple boards, Mutts etc does in benefit of the people
of community. This will have dual benefit of keeping up the pride of the people
to stay loyal to our community values and traditions as well as community
services.
Like anywhere, within our community also there are people who just love
to sit behind and complain about anything under sun. But what makes me happy
and proud is that there are equal number of people who don’t care for such
things and come forward to serve the community. Either it is matrimonial
services or educational support, you name them and we have it in our community.
That drives home a very important point. To keep up with time, one has to
ensure that they cater to the changing needs of the time. You cannot expect one
to give his everything just in the name of religion. Sustainability comes with
give and take policy and that is what our community has learnt so early in the
time-curve graph.
Today, the IT city has not just bangalored the jobs of US to India. It
has had one more effect within the country– migration of people to IT city on
account of getting jobs. I call this bangalored too, in context of within our
country. But in spite of this, come car festival of lord venkatramana temple of
Mangalore, you can see the entire Gen-X standing in the front volunteering for
the 5-day festival. Its sheer visual delight to watch them taking part in this
with so much of enthu and dedication. We may have either cut short on few
traditions or may be given a miss for few of them, but the mere fact that the
crowd size keeps swelling year on year is a proof for the pride of our people
about our community, our god and our religious heads.
So, to close this thread on an optimistic note, it makes me feel happy
that we still do follow the rituals such a Brahmopadesham tradition, even in
its compact form. It is nothing but these get-togethers which brings all the
people of the families settled at different hooks and corners of the country,
to meet each other and re-bond, either full siblings or half! And I am happy
that I wrote this piece of blog precisely when the historic swearing-in
ceremony of the 15th PM of 16th Lok Sabha is going on!!
