by Shrila Gopala Bhatta Gosvami
After the sun has set, the child should eat the grains that he has begged with ghee but without salt. Before eating he should sprinkle the grains with water, then sip water saying:
om amritopastaranam asi svaha
“You are the sitting place of nectar.”
He should take small particles of food in his ring, middle finger and thumb of his right hand and saying the following five mantras offer the grains five times to the life airs by swallowing them without chewing. Each time some grains should remain in his hand, which he should discard on the earth. The left hand should be touching the plate.
@footnote:
If the rice is prasadam, then the discarded rice should be kept in a corner of the plate. This process of pariseshana (sipping water and an offering of cooked rice to the life airs) is to respect Krishna’s potencies as His manifestation as Vaishvanara, the fire of digestion and the five life airs.
aham vaishvanaro bhutva
praninam deham ashritah
pranapana-samayuktah
pacamy annam catur-vidham
“I am the fire of digestion in the bodies of all living entities, and I join with the air of life, outgoing and incoming, to digest the four kinds of foodstuff.” (Bg 15.14)
om pranaya svaha
om apanaya svaha
om samanaya svaha
om udanaya svaha
om vyanaya svaha
After finishing his meal he should again sip water saying:
om amritapidhanam asi svaha
“You are the water to cover the nectar.”
As long as he lives as a brahmacari, that is up until the Samavartana samskara, the boy should perform the Samidadhanam Homa every morning and evening.
For the rest of his life he should take his meals in this manner.
This is the Upanayanam ceremony.
BY: SUN STAFF
Dec 09, 2016 — CANADA (SUN) — By Shrila Gopala Bhatta Gosvami. Printed by The Bhaktivedanta Academy, Mayapur (1995).
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