What are the ten principles of godly life mentioned in Gita 16.1-3 purport?

From Anuj Agarwal P

My thanks to Hari Parshad Prabhu for providing this list:

10) dīkṣā (giving mantra at the end of learning and preparation for entering household life)

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna.
Question from Anuj Agarwal Prabhu. What are the ten principles of godly life that Srila Prabhupada refers to in the purport of 16.123 in the Bhagavad Gita? There, he says that children should be trained in these ten principles. What are they? Answer, they refer to the ten samskaras.
That’s a samskara. Samskaras are purificatory performances that are done to create, to invoke auspiciousness and to create devotional impressions. So, now, the number of samskaras sometimes varies according to time, place, circumstances, according to different ways of classification, different cultural specifics.
So, traditionally, there are said to be 16 samskaras. And that’s how the Smarthas count them to be. And even in our Iskcon book of samskaras we have, normally we refer to it as 16 samskaras.
But then, Srila Prabhupada sometimes writes in his books about ten samskaras. He mentions that in his 10th canto, also the ten samskaras. And these refer to, these are, in Bengal, there are Smarthas.
Now, the samskaras generally are standardized by the Smarthas. We often use the word Smartha in a negative sense. But it’s not necessarily negative.
Smarthas have also been a respectable part of the Vedic culture. So, in the Bengali, among the Bengali Smarthas, they focus on ten samskaras. So, there was a famous Smartha scholar, Raghunandan Bhattacharya, and he wrote a book called Samskar Tattva, in which he listed the ten samskaras that are prevalent generally in Bengali culture, that Srila Prabhupada refers to.
So, now, it begins with Vivaha. A person gets married. Now, we are talking about primarily of the new person’s life.
So, Vivaha, after that is Garbhad, Vivaha is marriage, then Garbhadhan, there is conception, there is Pumsavan. Pumsavan is for, still for getting a child, the male child, especially. Then there is Simantonen.
Not necessarily sequential. Simantonen is that the groom separates the hair of the bride, and then applies tilak over there. So, marks the Simant.
Simantonen. Then there is Jatakarma, that is also called Medhakarna, that is actually for invoking, for getting a learned child, an intelligent child, a child with a high intelligence, that is a prayer for the samskara for the intelligence of the child. Then the child is born, then there is Namakarna, the naming of the child.
Then there is Chudakarna. Chudakarna is the first hair cutting of the child. It is also called Mundan.
Then there is, he gives a slight difference in classification over here. There is Vidyarambha is the beginning of learning. Now, often this is, even at home, the father just uses a slate, and starts teaching the first letters to the child.
That’s Vidyarambha. Then there is Upanayana. Now, Upanayana and normal samskara classification, it is equated with Diksha.
But here, Raghunandan Bhattacharya talks about Upanayana as the beginning of education at the Gurukul. And then, after the, most people in the Vedic culture would be Upakuru and Brahmachari. So, they would go and stay for some time and they would come back.
So, when they would come back, at that time, they would be returned, while returning, they would get another mantra, which they would be going to chant throughout their life. That would be called a Diksha. So, in this way, there are 10 samskaras, which Aishwarya Prabhupada refers to.
And in general, the point is that, when the children are given proper samskaras, the samskaras facilitate the children in developing devotional impressions, devotional qualities, and in this way, making the full use of the precious human form that they have got. That’s why, when Prabhupada talks in the 16.123 Purport, he talks about how people should live in this world. According to Daivya Prakruti, there he mentions that the children should be given these samskaras.
Thank you. Hare Krishna.