Dada J. P.Vaswani

The sacred thread ceremony is an ancient ceremony, full of deep meaning and significance. The sacred thread, in ancient India, was called Yagnopavitra. The ceremony was called Upanayanam. It points to the great truth that the child, when he attains of age, needs to understand that the purpose of the human birth is to open the third eye. Everyone of us has two eyes with which we behold the beauties of nature— the sunrise and sunset, the trees and flowers, the rivers and rocks, the rolling waves of the sea, the moon beams shimmering on the lake and many other things besides that are in the physical world around us. We need to open the third eye, the spiritual eye with which to behold the beauties and the wonders of the spiritual world that is within us. With this in view, the child is invested with the sacred thread—Yagnopavitra—and initiated into the sacred Gayatri Mantra. With this initiation, he attains his second birth: he is now born to unfold and discover his spiritual nature. Our first birth is when we are born of flesh: we need to be born of the Spirit. Essentially, each one of us is a soul who has worn the garment of the body and brought with himself the equipment of the mind to be able to do his work on the physical plane.

The sacred thread consists of three threads knotted together. The wearer of the sacred thread has to live a life of discipline. He has to discipline (1) his body; (2) his speech; and (3) his mind. He has to live a life of self-control. He must control (1) his actions; (2) his words; and (3) his thoughts.

I love to think of the three threads as pointing to three main ideals which everyone of us must bear witness to, if we are to live a life of self-control and discipline. Every wearer of the sacred thread must always keep in mind the three ideals.

The first is the ideal of truthfulness. The wearer of the sacred thread has to be truthful in every thought, word and deed. He must always, always speak the truth. Satyat nasti parodharma, was the teaching of the ancient Rishis. There is no religion higher than Truth. Mahatma Gandhi often said:— “People say God is Truth. I believe that Truth is God!” When he was a student, they put a question to Mahatma Gandhi :— “Tell us what is more precious than silver?” He answered :— “Gold is more precious than silver.” “Is there anything that is more precious than gold?” he was asked. And he answered:— “Truth is more precious than gold: and there is nothing that is more precious than Truth.” Beloved Dada, Sadhu Vaswani said to us:— “Truth, though she take me through the fire: Truth, though she lead me to the scaffold!” You will do well to study the story of Raja Harishchandra who sacrificed everything but would not sacrifice Truth.

The second thread stands for the ideal for purity. My child, let your life be pure and let your heart be pure. As Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God!” Purity— therefore grow in self-control. Keep your senses under control. The eyes must not see an obscene picture. The ears must not hear idle talks. The tongue must not speak harsh words or words of criticism, against other people. Everyone of the senses must be pure. And the mind must be kept under control. For impurity begins in the thought. And when I let an impure thought remain in my mind, it gives me a relish and this relish drives me to an act of impurity.

And the third thread stands for the ideal of compassion and love, of sympathy and service. The wearer of the sacred thread must do as much good as he can to as many as he can, on as many occasions as he can, in as many ways as he can. And he must not forget that creation is One Family. In the family of creation, birds and animals are man’s younger brothers and sisters. It is the duty of man to give the love of his heart to his younger brothers and sisters, to take care of them, to guard them, to protect them against the cruel knife of the butcher. These hands are given us to help and heal not to hurt or harm; to bless not to butcher; to save, not to slaughter. These hearts are given us to love and not to hate. Science and technology are given us that we may create on earth a Kingdom of heaven, a Kingdom of compassion and love.

Aristanemi was a prince. He was to be married to a princess.. He arrived at the kingdom of the princess where he found a number of animals—lambs and goats and other animals—tied together: they were crying to be released. The prince, Aristanemi enquired as to why the animals kept on crying. He was told that the animals were about to be slaughtered to provide meat for his wedding-feast. Compassion wakes up in his heart and Aristanemi says:— “I would rather not marry than have so many animals killed for the marriage-feast!” He does not enter the kingdom of the princess but retires into the depths of a tapobana, a forest, to live a life of tapasya and dhyana, self-control, austerity and meditation.

Let these three ideals— truthfulness, purity, compassion— be the light of our life!