“Om! May Brahman protect us (teacher and student) both! May Brahman nourish us both! May we acquire energy (as a result of this study)! May we both become illumined (by this study)! May we not envy each other! Om, Peace! Peace! Peace!”
This invocation is meant to induce a state of creative tranquility in the mind by making it receptive, knowledge oriented, and bereft of any other evil passions.
Teacher and student engaged in the pursuit of knowledge and excellence of character is education. Education, according to Indian sages, is lighting of one lamp from another. Education is not stuffing the brain but illuminating the mind and heart.
The Upanishads conceived education as training in clearness of vision, in purity and strength of will, and in richness and stability of the emotions. The very word ‘Upanishad’ means ‘education received by a student while sitting close to his teacher’. The profounder the subject, the more the need for close communion between teacher and student. When man achieves some sort of order and stability in his outer life, and if his mind is not stifled in the process but continues to be creative and seeking, he is bound to feel the impact of a vaster and more significant inner world pressing upon his mind and seeking his attention. It is only then that he becomes aware of something profound and deep within himself; close to him and not far away. This recognition at once makes for a gradual silencing of the clamors of the sense organs; a mood of inwardness and peace descends on the soul of man; and he now enters on the search for the truth of experience, not in the field of sense-data, but beyond them. Only a seeker endowed with such a frame of mind, and backed by a measure of inner discipline, can pierce the outer literary form, and enter into the spiritual atmosphere, of the Upanishads. The Katha Upanishad emphasizes the truth through two participants in its dialogue: young ‘Nachiketa’, the student, and wise ‘Yama’, the teacher. Nachiketa is the embodiment of inner discipline and one-pointed love of truth. He is a child, pure and fresh and fearless, pulsating with life and vigor. And Yama,the god of death, is the master of Self-knowledge; he has pierced the mystery hidden in life and death and achieved wisdom and serenity. His very name suggests self-control and moral elevation. He has compassion for those who struggle on the path of truth.
Among the Upanishads the Katha Upanishad stands in a category all alone.It blends in itself the charm of poetry, the strength of philosophy, and the depth of mysticism; it contains a more unified exposition of the spiritual insights of Vedanta than is found in any other single Upanishad. The word ‘Shraddha’ has no exact equivalent in English; it is usually translated as faith; but it is not faith in a creed or dogma but faith in oneself, faith in the infinite power lodged in each soul; it is also faith in the power of truth and goodness, a firm conviction of the ultimate meaningfulness of the universe. It is the totality of positive attitudes, ‘astikya buddhi’ as Shankara defines it. It is the impelling force behind man’s efforts at character development, his civic virtues,and social grace, his search for truth in science and religion.When man looses faith in himself, he loses faith in everyone and everything else as well, and the gate is opened to all-round deterioration.Truth, ‘Satya’, which expresses itself as righteousness, ‘Dharma’, in human life,is an eternal value. It cannot be moulded and shaped to suit human convenience.The later, on the other hand, must be made to conform to Truth.
As Swami Vivekananda puts it, “Truth does not pay homage to any society, ancient or modern. Society has to pay homage to Truth, or die…. Practice that boldness which dares to know the Truth, which dares show the Truth in life, which does not quake before death,nay, welcomes death, makes a man know that he is Spirit, that, in the whole universe nothing can kill him. Then you will be free. Then you will know your real soul.”
This is an excerpt from The Message of The Upanishads by Swami Ranganathananda.