Teaching Vedam Learning Life

KVRK Bhargav


It was the sylvan surroundings of the Institute lawns next to the humanities block, with verdant grass, circumvented by tall coconut trees and beautiful marigolds and dahlias in full bloom. Felt that I have been transported to an ancient gurukula. I was quite excited to take a formal Vedam class in this serene ambiance. The students started trickling in and by 6 pm the class had full attendance. I suggested we sit on the ground in conformance with the Vedic traditions. One of the pupils was skeptical and with some trepidation said, "Sir, the grass is wet here and we will have a lot of distractions due to mosquitoes".  I prevailed over them with a small pep talk on one pointedness, perseverance and importance of austerity.

After the pep up session, I felt, I overdid it, as one of the members of the world's deadliest air force, deadliest because it is responsible for millions of deaths and casualties of human beings with missiles like malaria, dengue, chikungunya and so on; hovered around me with a buzzing sound and did a reconnaissance of a possible bunch of soft targets to get its troops.
But the arrows of my pep talk had lodged in the bull’s eye of the heart of the students and they all were charged up for the challenge. Now there was no taking them back. We started the class and I was busy teaching them the rudram carefully explaining the subtle nuances of some intonations. While chanting, I saw that a horde of these blood thirsty beings had already made themselves ready for a grand feast. Today they wanted to try a different dish which had the flavour of charged incantations of Vedam. The boys were sitting cross legged, erect with a steady gaze at me trying to concentrate on what I was chanting. My gaze was sometimes getting distracted, seeing these parasites feasting on their motionless bodies. Without moving a limb, without turning their gaze at them and without even trying to shoo away the winged insects, they were pictures of steadfastness, sincerely repeating the verses uttered by their teacher. 
One of the mosquitoes pleased with the one pointedness and restraint of the pupils wanted to taste(test) the guru also. It flew from one of the arms of  a disciple and did a smooth landing with the grace of an F-16 Stealth fighter on my right forearm which was resting supplely on my knee and made itself comfortable as if it heard my pep talk and knew that I will not disturb its meal. It got its natural straw ready for a bloody drink and pierced the skin of my forearm. Gathering all my strength, I resisted the feeling of scratching my arm. At that point, I was teaching the third paragraph of Rudram, which beautifully describes that God is immanent in every person, be it a thief, a robber, a hunter, a dacoit, a pick pocket or a smuggler. While chanting this verse, I felt I was describing that wretched mosquito sitting on my hand and having a delightful ‘vedam’ feast.
It was taking a longer time to fill its belly today to increase my discomfiture. This made me restless and I tried gently moving my hand up and down in sync with the intonations a couple of times but it was determined to teach me a lesson. Raj Shekhar blurted out, "Sir! that 'namo' which you chanted just now is not up but down.” I corrected the intonation and continued the class with my whole attention focused on my forced blood donation.
Finally this pesky insect filled its belly removed its proboscis and left perhaps little disappointed at my inability to pass its test. I heaved a sigh of relief when came the second shocker. “Sir, you have skipped the fourth paragraph of rudram completely,” said Sai Chand complainingly. He paused, condescended to me with an advice and said, “Should we go inside a classroom as we will have sufficient light and fans?” skirting the real issue. I gave a cold shoulder to the idea, evading an eye contact with him and tried to concentrate on the fourth para of rudram.
My fidgeting was noticed by the pupils but pretended as if they have noticed nothing. I took courage and looked  into their eyes, especially at Sai Chand, a bubbly, mischievous boy and felt as if below the masks of one pointedness and concentration they were hiding their laughter and scorn for someone who doesn't practice what he preaches. The treatment meted out by the mosquitoes was same to all like the sun which shines equally on all. But, they followed the dictum of their guru whereas the guru fell by the wayside in following his own dictum.  
I learnt the hard way what Swami often says, ' Be Acharyas, first practice and then preach’.