Ten Commandments for Students From Taittiriya Upanishad-Part II

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The Vedanta Kesary, p. 588-592, December 2007)

6.Hold on to Self-study and Teaching (swadhyaya pravachanabhyam na pramaditavyam)
These days one speaks of 'Knowledge Society" being managed or governed by 'Knowledge Workers." It is interesting to note how the Upanishads, in that remote past of world history, gave so much importance to cultivation of love of knowledge and spread of knowledge to others. Self-study means always keeping ourselves abreast of what is happening not only in our field of work or interest but also studying our motives and developing the habit of self-introspection.

How many evils in our life owe their existence to our being unaware of them! If only we are aware of our motives and the ideas that are directing or affecting our action, living a right life will become a rewarding experience. Self-study therefore includes self-introspection. Not only should we acquire knowledge through reading books or articles or a judicious use of Internet, we should be willing to share our knowledge with others. This 'teaching" of what we know ultimately helps us to clarify our ideas and make them grow. As someone said once, 'If I have a dollar and you have a dollar and we both exchange, we both still have one dollar each. But if I have an idea and you have an idea and if we exchange, we both exchange our ideas, we both will have two ideas each." Swami Vivekananda"s words can be recalled here: 'Doing is good but that comes from thinking. Fill yourself therefore with good thoughts." This is possible only when one practises self-study and shares one"s knowledge with others.

7.Look Upon Your Mother, Father, Teacher and Guest as Living Gods (matru devo bhava, pirtu devo bhava, acharya devo bhava, atithi devo bhava)
In today"s fast world, we seem to become too much money-centred. Our respect is based on the money or position they have. This means we have reduced others and ourselves to mere economic or biological units. That is why there is an ever-growing problem of parents being ill-treated by their children, teachers being neglected by their students and friendship with good people being at stake. The rishi rightly says that as an antidote to this, we should cultivate respectfulness towards others.

These days many young people do not hesitate to leave their parents when the parents need them most. This is because of selfish motive of keeping money above everything. What these young people fail to see is that they too would turn old, sooner or later, and will have to face a similar disloyalty and unpleasant experience. Youth is not eternal. Wake up! Be grateful and be willing to acknowledge what you receive from others or else our social and personal life will be a hell—that is the insightful message of the Vedic rishis.

Respect for one"s family members and for teachers and good people (who come as guests to our house) goes a long way in keeping a healthy social life. This is the best 'social insurance" one can think of. This respect for others is the foundation of strong family bonds, which is the basis of a healthy society.

8.Do Only Good Deeds, Avoid Bad Deeds (anavadyani karmani tani sevitavyani)
This is a caution: 'Do only things and actions which are free from blemish." The rishis were very pragmatic in their approach to life. They advised that one must be always active and healthily engaged. 'An idle mind is devil"s workshop," was well-known to them. So one must be busy, but busy in doing good to others. There are many aspects of doing good to others. First thing is we get what we give. Swami Vivekananda used to say, 'Unselfishness is more paying only people do not have patience to practice it."In the long run, doing good to others is doing good to ourselves. For, ultimately, in a spiritual sense, we are not different from others.

The Mahabharata declares that doing good to others is what religion is all about. Faith in this simple truth can do immense good to us individually and collectively. Moreover sometimes teachers them-selves, under some very pressing circumstances, may do some wrong action. That action should not be taken as the ideal. Even their actions should be scrutinized and only those actions, which are for the good in a larger perspective alone, should be done.

9.Give Gifts with Respect (shraddhaya deyam)
Says Swami Vivekananda, ' Do not stand on a high pedestal and take five cents in your hands and say, “Here my poor man"; but be grateful that the poor man is there, so that by making a gift to him you are able to help yourself. It is not the receiver that is blessed, but it is the giver. Be thankful that you are allowed to exercise your power of benevolence and mercy in the world, and thus become pure and perfect."

In other words, we should give help—monetary, physical or intellectual, or in any other form—with a sense of respect. Shraddha means faith plus respect. If we do anything with shraddha, its fruits become manifold. Moreover, this attitude of giving help removes our undue attachment to money, which is a great hindrance in developing a true personality. Money can only be a means and never an end in itself. So, when we gift money not with a sense of pride and arrogance, such a giving makes us pure, holy and compassionate. It makes us great. A lot of social or personal evils can be traced to people unwilling to help, which in turn leads to miserliness and cruelty. This unwillingness comes out of our attachment to money.

Now-a-days, thanks to the IT boom, many young people suddenly become recipients of huge wealth, and then they do not know what to do with it. It often degrades them into sub-human levels of drinking, drug addictions, violence and so on. No wonder the instances of suicides and depressions are also increasing. If only people understand the meaning of learning to give! Learning to make judicious use of money, at right place and time and to right person is an essential part of the total educational vision of the ancient Rishis.

10.Bring Wealth to Your Teacher to Continue His Educational Work (acharyayapriyam dhanam aaharitya)
To run an educational institution one needs funds and support in many other ways. If students do not give back what they have received from their teachers in the form of money or other type of help, it only proves that they have not understood the true meaning of education. An educated person is one who has a spirit of gratefulness. This gratefulness can be expressed in many ways such as offering monetary support or protecting the interests of the institution at the political or administrative level and so on. The best way to express one"s sense of gratitude is to follow the principles of truthfulness and kindness and other higher principles one learns from one"s teacher.

Conclusion
If one wants to overcome the problems of youth (such as restlessness, lack of self-control, being too soft or being too rash and so on), one must learn to practise these values.
Life means change. Often it is said that we are living in changing times. Indeed, the very word used in Sanskrit for 'world" is samsara, which means 'that which is changing". The rich becomes poor and the poor becomes rich. The young becomes old and old ones pass out. The healthy becomes sick and sick becomes healthy. Governments change. Policies change. Fashions change. There is constant change in this world. But in the midst of this change and new situations, new people and new challenges at different levels of our life, one needs certain changeless values.

These Ten Commandments from the Upanishad are truly eternal values which can make life meaningful and rewarding. Students often search for lasting solutions to the problems they face. The values discussed above contain hints and suggestion to face life from a deeper level. In order to grasp their true meaning, one must meditate on them and practise them in life.