Check out LoKal Channel for the video of the ceremony.

In the sacred atmosphere of Sri Lakshmi Temple located in Ashland, Massachusetts, ten Hindu American high school students and one college student graduated in a traditional Vedic service on May 31, 2009. The second annual graduation pooja was cosponsored by Vishwa Hindu Parishad Bal Vihars and NEHTI Committee on Youth Cultural and Educational Program. Two Vidya Lakshmi Scholarships of $1,000 were awarded by the NEHTI Committee on this occasion to two graduates: Sadhana Gupta and Arun Saigal. Students wishing to participate in the Vidya Lakshmi Scholarships next year should contact Dr. Kumar Nochur of Sri Lakshmi Temple: knochur88@yahoo.com

The graduates, their proud parents, friends, two temple scholars and pujaris, and several Temple committee members assembled early on Sunday morning to participate in this unique Samskara service, the first of its kind to be held in the United States for the second time

The serene service began with Ekta Mantra (mantra that reminds of the underlying Unity among all) sung by Shaifali Verma and Swati Sharma, the co-emcees of the program. Shri Mohanji, Karuna, and Rishi rank among professional singers and sang the stuti of Ma Saraswati to the accompaniment of harmonium and tabla with great expertise and bhava. Their Vandana of the Devi of Learning had a calming effect on the audience with the graduates prepared to participate in the ensuing pooja and absorb the messages from the pujaris and the various speakers. Shri Giri Bharatan, Chairman of Sri Lakshmi Temple and a Sanskrit Scholar, addressed the graduating students and acquainted them with the meaning and importance of Samskara. (Sanskrit classes for children and adults are held at the Temple headed by Dr. Bijoy Misra on Sundays.) Samavartana or graduation is one of the sixteen samskaras that are normally conducted for a Hindu where the first samskara, called simantonnayana, is prenatal, normally performed before birth during the seventh month of pregnancy and the final samskara being the death rites. The education samskaras are considered most important as Hindus recognize education to be the stepping stone to future enlightenment for eventual liberation from the bondage of rebirths. A samskara ceremony creates a positive imprint or channel in the mind of the recipient akin to a little path. The purpose is to guide future thoughts and resulting actions to travel along this familiar path assisting the individual to think and act in an appropriate manner conducive to living in accordance with dharma.  

Two scholars and pujaris of the Temple, Panditjis VedaMurthis Krishna Bhattar and Bhairav Sundaram conducted the pooja service beginning with Sri Ganesha Pooja followed by Sri Saraswati Pooja. Each graduate participated individually and collectively in the Pooja seeking success in college and future educational efforts. All recited the Maha mantra 21 times: Om Ayeem Saraswati Namah. Panditji Krishna Bhattar explained the various meanings of the Pooja and various mantra including the Gayatri mantra, encouraging the students to continue with the practice of repeating the mantras for personal benefit. Panditji Bhairav Sundaram noted that the shelter and the sage advice of the parents are being left behind as the students depart for college. He offered that the Temple is a place for all to get assistance with any personal difficulties and problems. Traditionally, the pundits counseled all people including couples confronting marriage problems and no one needs to seek psychiatric help. Difficulties may be due to grahas which can be alleviated by performing the right pooja.

Dr. Kumar Nochur, President of the Temple, engaged the students next in a light hearted manner using Socratic method of questioning, asking them to differentiate para vidya (knowledge of Brahman, the Ultimate Reality) from apara vidya (secular knowledge). He explained that the ultimate goal of human birth is to know of Brahman which is a matter of experience, not intellectually knowable. The Saguna Brahman has the triple qualities of sat (knowledge), chit (consciousness), and ananda (bliss) and so he calls Sanatana Dharma, Ananda dharma as it leads a practitioner to joy. All students were called individually, their accomplishments acknowledged, and awarded a graduation certificate with a bag of gifts on behalf of the Temple by Dr. Nochur. One of the gifts was a copy of the holy Srimad Bhagavad Gita.

Two handouts were distributed, the Vedic Shikshavalli from Taittiriya Upanishad and the Fifteen Laws of Life enunciated by Swami Vivekananda, by the last speaker, Dr. Mona Khaitan, who was asked to bless the students. While the Shikshavalli final instructions for departing graduating students are still applicable and useful, however, due to passage of time, we are unable to appreciate and relate to it in full measure. God incarnates periodically to retransmit the same message for benefit of mankind. We are readily able to understand and assimilate the Fifteen Laws of Life enunciated by Swami Vivekananda, a direct disciple of our most recent avatar, Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa. She stated that the students had gotten a treasure trove of sage advice but may be wondering how to follow even a part of it, given the time constraint of college life. She noted that the 15 laws of living are interrelated. If one law is followed, all laws are being followed simultaneously. It is like a branch, pull a leaf and all leaves of the branch come towards us. Similarly, it is necessary to follow only one law of life that we are most comfortable with and then the rest of the laws of living come to us automatically.

Laws are absolute and unconditional and must be followed for securing peace of mind for success. Peace of mind leads us to knowledge of our essential nature (swarupa), our real Self. When the waves of the mind are undisturbed, when we remain calm in face of good or bad fortune, when we do not fall prey to likes and dislikes, then we are in possession of peace of mind. And this peace of mind comes from following the inviolable laws of living. This ultimate success of Self knowledge is within our reach when we concentrate on following just one law of life conscientiously.

The graduating students were reminded that they were fortunate to have taken birth in the human form. The students are fortunate to have healthy bodies and discriminating intellects, and to be born in a loving family where the parents have nurtured the students in the ways of dharma. The students are fortunate to have this samskara service conducted by interested friends. Indeed, all present were blessed to be in the direct presence of Sri Lakshmi, the Siddhidatri, who can bless with the accomplishment of all four goals of life: dharma (right living), artha (wealth), kama (pleasure), and moksha (liberation).

All students were asked to bow to Sri Ganesha, Sri Saraswati, Sri Lakshmi, their mothers, their fathers, and all others present in the congregation, as God resides in all. They were further asked to go out fearlessly in the world and to be proud to call themselves Hindu Americans.

Fifteen Laws of Life by Swami Vivekananda

1. Love Is The Law Of Life: All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of life. He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying. Therefore, love for love's sake, because it is law of life, just as you breathe to live.

2. It is Your Outlook That Matters: It is our own mental attitude, which makes the world what it is for us. Our thoughts make things beautiful, our thoughts make things ugly. The whole world is in our own minds. Learn to see things in the proper light.

3. Life is Beautiful: First, believe in this world - that there is meaning behind everything. Everything in the world is good, is holy and beautiful. If you see something evil, think that you do not understand it in the right light. Throw the burden on yourself!

4. It's The Way You Feel: Feel like Christ and you will be a Christ; feel like Buddha and you will be a Buddha. It is feeling that is the life, the strength, the vitality, without which no amount of intellectual activity can reach God.

5. Set Yourself Free: The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him - that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.

6. Don't Play the Blame Game: Condemn none: if you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, fold your hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way.

7. Help Others: If money helps a man to do good to others, it is of some value; but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better.

8. Uphold Your Ideals: Our duty is to encourage everyone in his struggle to live up to his own highest ideal, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth.

9. Listen To Your Soul: You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.

10. Be Yourself: The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. Have faith in yourselves!

11. Nothing Is Impossible: Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin - to say that you are weak, or others are weak.

12. You Have The Power: All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.

13. Learn Everyday: The goal of mankind is knowledge... now this knowledge is inherent in man. No knowledge comes from outside: it is all inside. What we say a man 'knows', should, in strict psychological language, be what he 'discovers' or 'unveils'; what man 'learns' is really what he discovers by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge.

14. Be Truthful: Everything can be sacrificed for truth, but truth cannot be sacrificed for anything.

15. Think Different: All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything.  

Graduating Students:

    * Jaishri Atri
    * Neha Bhatia
    * Savithri Bhattar(Daughter of Krishna Bhattar, completed her undergraduate)
    * Mounica Donepudi
    *  Benjamin Elder
    * Sadhna Gupta (Vidya Lakshmi Scholar - Academic)
    * Ashwini Javlekar
    * Amritha Mangalat
    * Vickash Mohanka
    * Shakti Nochur
    * Arun K. Saigal (Vidya Lakshmi Scholar - Academic)
    * Anil Singhal
    * Rishi Jalan
    * Swetha Dravida(Vidya Lakshmi Scholar - Carnatic Music)
    * Akshaya Krishnaswamy(Vidya Lakshmi Scholar - Classical Dance)
    * Urboshi Pal (Vidya Lakshmi Scholar - Hindustani Music)


 

Families interested in participating in next year’s Graduation Service should contact Dr. Abhaya Asthana: abhayaji@gmail.com

      VHP of America is a national organization which has among its objectives to unite Hindus by instilling in them devotion to the Hindu way of life, to cultivate self-respect and respect for all people, and to establish contacts with Hindus all over the world. For more information please visit http://www.vhp-america.org/

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