Hindu Sacraments

UPANAYAN : A journey In Search Of Knowledge
A young boy is initiated into his student years on the occasion of his Upanayan or sacred thread ceremony. Much criticism has been made against this samskara as it is available only to males, born into the higher castes and denied to all others, including women. Contrary to the popular belief, there are scriptural and also epic references to women scholars receiving the Upanayan samskara. There is a specific record in the Ramayana of Sita having performed the Sandhya puja and also reciting the Gvayatri. But due to the patriarchal system having overtaken Hindu culture, women have since lost the right to this special sacrament. Some social reformers today insist that such a partisan sacrament should be discarded altogether in the modern age. Others feel that it should be redesigned and made available to all Hindus.

Upanayan is a ceremony in which a young student is taught the importance of the quest for knowledge. The batu, as the boy is called, learns to worship the sun as the eternal truth of the world, and as the life source of all living beings. He prays to the sun to make his faculties sharp and lustrous. Gayatri, the chant taught to a batu at the Upanayan is a prayer to the source of all truth and transcendental light. The mantra is:

Let us meditate on god's glory.
Let us worship him who created the universe.
Let him remove our ignorance and wash away our sins.
Let us pray that our intellects and wisdom are enlightened.

In days gone by, the batu was weaned away from his parent's care and sent to a gurukul to start his training. Today, he is no longer taken away, but still taught to realize the importance of education. The batu performs the Sandhya puja thrice every day after the Upanayan and is admitted to the status of a seeker of knowledge and truth.