Apart from the Siththar's tradition, the guru-sishya tradition has its long term journey even in Indian vedic culture. Till last century this guru-sishya practice did not lose its glory however, it becomes a completely extinct art of practice nowadays. Alas! Future generation will not even get a hint about this guru-sishya way of learning arts.
We always imagined ashram as small kudil (home built using various types of leafs like palm, coconut etc,) enclosed by beautiful garden, which lies in the outskirt of village or people community. There stays a guru and the pupils of that guru who came to learn from guru. Almost, all our imaginations depict the ashram as said above.
Is that a ashram? How it functioned? Are there any types and forms among ashrams? For these above series of question, we found answers from Agathiyar’s book titled “Agathiyar Paripooranam”. My ultimate aim is to share that information in this series.
Agathiyar says, there are 5 types of ashrams which are as follows:
Brahmacharya ashram
Grihastha ashram
Sannyasa ashram
Vanaprastha ashram
Athivarna ashram
These 5 types refer to five hierarchical level of ashrams. On completing one level, one can go to upper level and so on. It is more like nowadays, primary, high school, higher secondary, undergraduate and post graduate education level.
Since, Agathiyar describes the pupil in those levels of ashrams as follows:
பார்பிரமச் சாரியடா பிர்மாவாகும்
paarpriamach chaariyadaa pirmaavaakum
பதிவான கிரகஸ்தன் விஷ்ணுவாகும்
pathivaana kirakasthan vishnuvaakum
நேர்குருவாஞ் சன்யாசம் ருத்திரனாகும்
naerkuruvaanj sanyaasam ruththiranaakum
நிலைவானப் பிரஷ்தனடா மயேசனாகும்
nilaiyaanap pirashthanadaa mayaesanaakum
சீர்பெருகும் ஆதிவர்னாச் சிரமமைந்தா
seerperukum aathirvarnaach siramamainthaa
சிவசிவா சதாசிவனாய்த் தெளிந்துகொள்ளு
sivasivaa sathasivnith thelinthukollu
ஆரறிவா ரஞ்சுநிலை விரதம்பெற்று
aararivaa ranjunilai virathampetru
அமர்ந்திருப்பான் கோடியிலே ஒருவன்றானே
amarnthiruppaan koadiyil oruvanraanae.
Those whose lives in brahmacharya ashram are correlated to Lord Brahma, pupils of grihastha are correlated to Lord Vishnu, pupils in sannyasa ashram are correlated to Lord Rudra, pupils of vanaprastha ashram are correlated to Lord Maheshwara and pupils of athivarna ashram are correlated to Lord Sadasiva. However, who completed all the above said level is in the ratio of one among the crore.
Amazing right! How will be the pupil of those ashrams? What are all their functions? What might be their aim?
Let us see in the upcoming post.
Stay tuned!!
Original - www.siththarkal.com
Translated by Lalithambika Rajasekaran
