“Those who sing of the auspicious occasion of the initiation and the wedding of Sita and Rama with excitement get countless auspicious blessings day after day, says Tulsi.” (Janaki Mangala, Chand 24.2)

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उपबीत ब्याह उछाह जे सिय राम मंगल गावहीं
तुलसी सकल कल्यान ते नर नारि अनुदिन पावहीं

upabīta byāha uchāha jē siya rāma maṅgala gāvahīṁ
tulasī sakala kalyāna tē nara nāri anudita pāvahīṁ

“Okay, hear me out on this one. I am not intentionally trying to be offensive. I am not itching for a debate or craving controversy. These are merely my observations, based on what I have witnessed, as of late. I tend to be sympathetic towards initiation, in the formal sense, which is known as diksha in Sanskrit. It moves my heart to see people so dedicated to a path that they become nervous to the point of struggling to remember four simple principles. When asked by their guru to recite the four regulative principles, they always seem to forget one of them.

“The thing that has always bothered me is that the initiation ceremony feels more like a graduation. Or perhaps bestowing a lifetime achievement award on a devotee. You get the sense that there was a lot of persuasion, that the initiates were not originally up for it. They finally relented, as a way to fit in. To become a member in good standing, to gain privileges of worshiping the deity in the temple, getting a new name to share with others, receiving invitations to large gatherings, they decided to choose a guru from a preapproved list. Sort of like back in the day when the Sears catalog came out, now you have the Guru Catalog. Act quickly, before the savings end!

“All jokes aside, to me, this closely resembles the way initiation occurs in criminal gangs. Sorry to be so harsh, but the similarities are undeniable. You see, as soon as you enter the gang, you are now one of them. You are equally culpable for the crimes that are committed. That might be what gets you initiated in the first place. You have to agree with something that is completely wrong. You have to throw away intelligence, common sense, and basic decency in order to fit in with a crowd.

“After becoming an official member, it is now in your best interest to maintain the legitimacy of the gang. Otherwise, you look like a fool. You went to all that trouble to join. If you reject the gang later on, people will criticize you for having joined in the first place. Instead, your inclination is to look the other way. You are just like the rest of the members. It is a gang of thieves, in a sense.

“Shouldn’t diksha be something better than that? I thought it is a relationship between student and teacher? I thought initiation is the beginning? Why, then, does it feel like the end? You shouldn’t need to take a course that deprograms everything you have learned, just to become eligible. Am I missing something here? It feels like people are renting a guru. At least the rental car companies find you another car if the one you want isn’t available. In these institutions, once the guide flakes out, for whatever reason, the disciples have to scramble to find a new guru, sometimes two or three times, in order to remain in solid standing. It is a farce, if you ask me.”

When we see or hear about concepts that are foreign to us but also ancient in origin, in descending from the Vedas, they may appear strange or impossible to reconcile. The truth is that the concepts play out in one form or another on a daily basis, throughout every society, since time immemorial. For instance, something like the arranged marriage has always existed. It was present in some populations during the time of the founding in America, as it was self-deprecatingly referred to in the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.

The original culture cannot be forced onto an unknowing population, and neither is any esteemed teacher who knows what they are doing recommending the same. But we can understand the spirit of events like the svayamvara of Sita Devi described in the Ramayana and the Rakshasa-style marriage of Krishna to Rukmini Devi described in Bhagavata Purana through comparison. Families adopt children today. The ancient marriages were similar, except with the wife viewed as a kind of gift from above, like the goddess of fortune appearing within the family. We may not appreciate such comparisons today, but that was the general spirit to the affairs.

Diksha, or initiation, is sort of like gaining admission into an institution of higher learning. At the foundation of such interaction is the connection between a teacher and a student. The teacher decides how they will accept students. If they work for an institution, then they agree to abide by the rules of that institution. If the student wants a relationship only with the institution, then the resulting relationship with one or more teachers is not necessarily like the diksha mentioned in shastra.

We can also compare genuine Initiation with apprenticeship. An expert agrees to train a novice. Both sides assess the situation. They begin a formal relationship. The goal is that the novice will one day turn into an expert. If they want, that expert can then train their own students. This is how we have access to Vedic wisdom today. The chain of succession is merely passing along a way of life, a culture, which is based on timeless knowledge. This succession is parampara.

एवं परम्परा-प्राप्तम्
इमं राजर्षयो विदुः
स कालेनेह महता
योगो नष्टः परन्तप

evaṁ paramparā-prāptam
imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ
sa kāleneha mahatā
yogo naṣṭaḥ parantapa

“This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in course of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as it is appears to be lost.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 4.2)

With initiation for learning spiritual practices, with the goal of understanding Brahman, there might be mantras exchanged. The guru decides when, where, and to whom the mantras will be offered. For instance, in the case of the avatara of Shri Rama, the sage named Vishvamitra offered confidential mantras only after a young Rama overcame a specific obstacle in the forests. It was like Rama and His younger brother Lakshmana were part of a training mission. Once completed, they were eligible to receive sacred formulas, which could then be used in their occupational duties.

बधी ताड़का राम जानि सब लायक
बिद्या मंत्र रहस्य दिए मुनिनायक

badhī tāṛakā rāma jāni saba lāyaka
bidyā mantra rahasya di’e munināyaka

“Rama showed His tremendous knowledge of fighting by killing the demon Tataka. The muni then gave to Him knowledge of secret mantras to be used in fighting.” (Janaki Mangala, 36)

Goswami Tulsidas refers to this interaction as the upavita. Rama and Lakshmana were initiated by Vishvamitra, and that event subsequently led to the marriage of Rama to Sita. A person who sings of these two occasions, who remembers them, who meditates on them, will find all kinds of auspiciousness. This is the real meaning to initiation, to come closer. The upavita is also the sacred thread, and it offers assistance in upasana, which is worship of the Almighty in the formal sense.

“When Lord Brahma was perplexed about how to construct the material manifestations in the universe and went down within the water to find out the means and the source of his lotus seat, he heard the word tapa vibrated twice. Taking the path of tapa is the second birth of the desiring disciple. The word upashrinot is very significant. It is similar to upanayana, or bringing the disciple nearer to the spiritual master for the path of tapa. So Brahmaji was thus initiated by Lord Krishna, and this fact is corroborated by Brahmaji himself in his book the Brahma-samhita.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Shrimad Bhagavatam, 2.9.6 Purport)

In Closing:

Like gang entry to resemble,
For initiation ritual to assemble.

Shift in values abrupt,
Now compelled to support the corrupt.

But diksha more than status attaining,
A student towards teacher for training.

Ultimately for proper worship to conduct,
Guide with eternal wisdom to instruct.

Categories: questions

Tags: dailyprompt, diksha, god, guru, hare krishna, hinduism, poem, poems, poetry, religion