मा विद्विषावहै (mA vidviShAvahai) - Let there be no enmity between the two of us

Is the word of a teacher (or any other position of authority) beyond questioning? Does questioning necessarily lead to rancour, or worse enmity, between the two?

Many of us would have learnt and recited the verse commencing “saha nA vavatu *”. It is the opening verse of the second part (brahmAnandavalli) of the taittiriya upaniSad. 


It is an invocation by the teacher and taught to ensure that both benefit from the learning process. Here, I’m going to focus on the last part of the invocation - mA vidviSAvahai. In literal sense, it prays that “there be no enmity between us two” (teacher and taught).


What would lead to rancour between the two? The most common cause would be the student challenging the teacher, or questioning the teacher’s interpretation. But we have it on authority from various other sources in our spiritual corpus that questioning and debate are not just allowed, they are encouraged as the best means of progressing thought. 


So why this prayer then? Isn’t it to ensure that the debate is always conceptual, and not personal? An open minded debate ensures that the person who puts forth an idea or a thought or a hypothesis (here the teacher) and the questioner (here the student) both come out richer from the experience, even if they agree to disagree.


The atmosphere of debate today is so vitiated that anyone disagreeing with anything you believe in is automatically classified as the “other”, or worse, the “enemy”. Can we try and evaluate ideas independent of their source? Can we encourage debate and an atmosphere of questioning without suspecting the questioners’ morals or motives? To take an analogy from sports, can we play the ball instead of the man?


A famous quote, misattributed to Voltaire, goes “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” - so beautifully capturing the separation of the thought from the thinker.


mA vidviShAvahai - it’s time to introspect.


—————————————————————-

*ॐ सह नाववतु ।

सह नौ भुनक्तु ।

सह वीर्यं करवावहै ।

तेजस्वि नावधीतमस्तु  मा विद्विषावहै ।

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥


OM saha nAvavatu |

saha nau bhunaktu |

saha vIryaM karavAvahai |

tejasvi nAvadhItamastu mA vidviShAvahai |

OM shAntiH shAntiH shAntiH ||


I will attempt to take up each of these lines in subsequent posts. Each is deep and more meaningful than ever today.

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