Your hair is tied to your past samskaras. When you perform a mundan, that is, shave the hair off your head, you will feel lighter and happier, writes YOG GURU SURAKSHIT GOSWAMI
Aday after cutting her long tresses very short, my colleague did something that was so out of character. She danced, full throttle, uninhibited, at a friend’s brother’s engagement party, surprising herself and her friends alike. It was as if she had become a new person, no longer bound by her past, she had broken free. Watching her, another friend remarked that it was similar to what her four-year-old nephew did several years ago, after his head was tonsured. A day after the mundan, this quiet and very well-behaved little boy suddenly became very naughty and loud, running around the house, laughing and giggling, climbing on shelves and jumping on the sofa.
Could the cutting of hair or shaving of the head have something to do with their behavioural change?
Indic scriptures indicate that the hair is always tied to our past samskaras, and when hair is shaved off, or perhaps even cut short drastically, we could feel lighter and become immensely happy.
Though it’s not easy, several types of kriyas and abhyas can be done to get rid of past impressions and sorrows that rob us of happiness every time they surface. These practices include satsang, dhyan, mantra japa, and also, mundan, the tonsuring ritual.
Just as we are connected with Nature through our breath, similarly, through the kapaal kshetra, region of the head, also known as Brahm-randra, we are connected to Brahmn. Shaving our head clean is said to help us connect with Brahmn better; it makes it easier to enter the state of dhyan.
The hair on your head is not simply meant to make you look beautiful and attractive; since they are deeply connected to your past, they have a deeper effect on your personality. Your hair is a storehouse of your past impressions that continue to influence your future, too. That’s why a mundan ceremony is an essential kriya in Hindu tradition, so that one’s past samskaras can be wiped clean and we don’t carry them into our present.
Traditionally, mundan is performed in childhood and also when there is a death in the family. This helps to dislodge all the grief we are overcome with upon the death of a dear one. By tonsuring, the hair and grief both are removed so that we can move on and lead a fuller and happier life.
Sannyas, renunciation, also means removing ourselves from past thoughts, perceptions, prejudices, beliefs, sorrows, memories, and results of our past actions. In other words, removing the past and becoming rejuvenated.
There are many ways to cut yourself off from your past. Sometimes, you may seek the help of a guru to give you a new lease of life. Just like the mundan performed in childhood, sannyas too, signifies a new birth. At the physical level, the resolve to lead a new life manifests by way of cutting your hair, a sign of renewal.
In sannyas, what is more important than tonsuring is to recast the heart and mind, renew them too, by removing yourself from your family and attachments and connecting with the Divine. From now on, you are to live as per a new thought process. That is why even the colour of your clothes is changed to ochre, reflecting the rays of the rising sun and the sacrificial fire. It essentially means that you have, from now on, destroyed all that is old, the old ways of thinking, old lifestyle. Ochre colour keeps reminding you that the fire of jnana can destroy all impurities within. The tradition of tonsuring in certain temples, too, is based on these beliefs.