Brahmachari Mayuran Sokkan Becomes a Supplicant

Today on the auspicious day of Vaikashi Vishakham, Aspirant Mayuran Sokkan has finalized his decision to follow the monastic path. During the stage of Aspirancy the candidate is commissioned to sort out his life and think about the two paths--monastic life and householder life--and, if his decision is to follow monastic life, to use that period to tie up the loose ends of his karma in the world.

Having completed the stage of the Aspirant, having made a clear decision of his own volition to follow the path of monasticism, if he is qualified, the candidate makes a formal request to the satguru and the monastic order to become a monk. If the petition is accepted, he enters the stage of premonastic life called the Supplicancy.

Today Brahmachari Mayuran has become a supplicant.

In addition to the Aspirant's pledge of purity (brahmachari), the Supplicant reads aloud and signs the pledges of humility and obedience. Toward the end of this six-month period, he will perform the age-old discipline of "sitting by the wall," a solemn process wherein he entreats God, Gods, guru and the devas to be accepted as a full member of the monastic community.

Bodhinatha signs the Supplicant's pledge.

Mayuran receives his first sacred japa mala from his satguru.

In a few months we will see Brahmachari Mayuran begging entrance at the Wall of Rain outside Kadavul Temple, praying for acceptance into the monastic order as a Postulant Sadhaka.