"Convocation Address"

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1. In those days of the Upanishads the Vedik literature did not give any method of worship upon a form.

 

2. Their Gods were except 'Agni' (Fire), all conceptions of the unmanifest power of nature.

 

3. The teachers of that era must have noticed the difficulties experienced by the beginners who, in their youthful days, waging their battle of life, could not find enough poise of mind or intellectual sharpness to devote themselves in subtle meditation upon the formless Truth.

 

4.  Some idol or living expression of divinity was to be supplied forb their concentration, to serve them as a source of constant and unbroken inspiration. 

 

 

5. The principle of idol worship, though not eved as such as in later times, is implicit in the principle of Upasana where, as we have said earlier, the attempt is to see the mighty in the meagre.

 

 

6. Thus, as a process of constant upasana, the student is told that he has to be, all through his life, one to whom his parents are expression of Godly qualities.

 

 

7. We need not necessarily take this idea only in its limited sense.

 

 

8. In its ampler implications it can be an exhortation of the Rishies to the members of the present generation, that, in their youthful vigour, though they are inspired to dash themselves forth into progressive plans for a greater future, they need not totally condemn and reject the last generation of elders in the society.

 

 

9. The youth have always the urge to move forward and the energy to drag their present to the future, but, in so doing, they should try to respect and revere the wealth of experience that the old have with them as a result of their long life lived.

 

 

10. The last generation lingering with us need not be conceived as the authority and the only people who have the vision of the future, but, at the same time, they need not be totally rejected, discarded, or ridiculed.

 

 

11. The Rishi means that the youth should be made to work, respecting the old.

 

12. "Never swerve from your duties towards gods and towards the departed 'souls'( Manes).

 

13. May the mother be, to thee, a god.

 

14. May the father be , to thee, a god.

 

15. May the preceptor be,  to thee,  a god.

 

16. May the guest be, to thee, a god. ......."

 
 
 

Taittiriya Upanishad: Chapter-1 ( Siksha Valli), Section-11 ( Convocation Address), Mantram-2.  

 
 

      

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