14. Become a Paramahamsa!
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Vedic seers of ancient India initiated students to chant Gayatri Mantra. Understand the key
words in the statement above: initiate and Gayatri Mantra.
The seekers of eternal knowledge were not baptized. They were initiated. The two are different. Baptizing is giving a guideline, initiation is handing over a torch for our use. A small story:
A man had lived in the jungle for more than 70 years. He had been born there and he had lived there all his life. He knew every secret place in the forest and paths to many places. He was like a walking directory and encyclopedia.
Once, a young man, person new to the forest came to him with a request, 'Sir, how can I cross the forest? Please help me.'
The old man said, 'That is not hard. If you walk one kilometer further, you will see a lion. Now, turn left, and walk on for three more kilometers. Here you will find a large snake. He is vicious, try to escape him. If you are successful, then you have to walk for another three kilometers. You will find a valley. Cross that valley and go on for four more kilometers. You will come to the banks of a river. Cross it to reach the other side.'
Let us understand this story. Is this the guidance of any use to the young man? How could the old man have helped him better? He could have given him a tool that would have helped the young man more than these detailed instructions. For in the jungle, lions don't wait precisely where the old man told. The young man would have benefited more from having a tool, like a torch that would give him a clear view of the road and that would have been enough.
Life is like a forest. We cannot always live by rigid rules and regulations. We meet with so many surprises and shocks that guidelines are of no help. Life, like the forest, is continuously changing. We cannot live by the dead rules or religions. To be successful in life we need a system that will give us more clarity, more understanding. We do not need any baptizing.
Be Clear! Gayatri is not baptizing. Gayatri does not mean any religion. It is simply a decision
to live consciously. Gayatri has no other religious paraphernalia. When we start living consciously,
life happens to us. We are reborn, dvija. In the Upanishads, a person who is reborn, a conscious
being, as a Paramahamsa. Live in this consciousness.
