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It
often occurs to me that two divine children demonstrate their
purpose of descent to the earth through their very upanayana
samskara. One of the two is Sankara who gave new life to the
Vedic religion and the other is Jnanasambhandhar. The Tamil
Periyapuranam mentions that Jnanasambhandhar's upanayana was
performed when he was a small child. From the fact that he calls
himself "Nanmarai Jnanasambandhan" we know that he was
conversant with all the four vedas. Both the Acarya and
Jnanasambandhar had to listen only once to grasp their lessons:
that is why they were called "ekasantagrahins". So they
could learn the vedas in one or two years. Indeed, there was no
need to teach them, for they were capable of learning everything
on their own. The one (Sankara) was an incarnation of Siva and
the other of Subrahmanya. If they had accomplished their
respective missions only after their upanayana had been performed
and after they had received instruction in Gayatri, it was only
to show ordinary people like us the importance of that samskara.
There
was a poet called Ramabadhra Dikshita who spoke about himself
thus" Before Gayatri came to me, Sarasvati was already there
with me." Before he was eight years old the usual age for
imparting the Gayatri mantra, he had began to compose poems.
Jnanasambandar too sang his composition "Todudaya ceviyan"
when he was only three years old. He had already been performing
miracles. But even so he had his upanayana ceremony performed and
was taught the Gayatri Mantra. If he did so it was to show the
world that he was able to accomplish his great mission in life
only by upholding the Vedic dharma. He has opened our eyes to the
significance of the upanayana samskara and the Gayatri Mantra.
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"Hindu Dharma" is a book
which contains English translation of certain invaluable and
engrossing speeches of Sri Sri Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi MahaSwamiji (at
various times during the years 1907 to 1994).
For a general background, please see here
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