JIVA-MAN

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

> From: Ms. Aikya Param <aikya at IX.NETCOM.COM>
> To: Multiple recipients of list ADVAITA-L <ADVAITA-L at TAMU.EDU>
> Subject: Re: JIVA-MAN
> Date: Thursday, November 14, 1996 2:09 PM
>
> So what are the swamis doing?  They are official renunciates. If they
> are eating and travelling and teaching and accepting donations and build-
> ing ashrams and publishing books, is this some new class of karma that
> doesn't happen in the world but on some other plane of existence but we
> see it, hear it and get annoyed with it if they are also having romantic
trysts
> with the ladies?
>

Instad of speculating as to what is karma and what isn't, why don't you
take a look at the dharmashastras.  What a sannyasi can and cannot do is
clearly delimited therein.

> If one cannot attain brahmaGYaanam.h and continue one's worldly life,
then
> what are we saying about Lord Krishna and Lord Rama?  Were they both
> ignorant?  Pardon me but they were both very involved in their worldly
> roles as soldier/king (Krishna) and Heir Apparent and then King (Raama).
>

An avatar is an amsha of Bhagavan so their situation is hardly the same as
a normal human being.

> In the west we don't have a sannyaas option the way there is in India.
It's
> not quite the same thing to join the ranks of the homeless as it is to
join the
> ranks of the sadhus in India.  Sanyaas is a lifestyle option within a
social
> system which also supports those who choose it.  It has clear legal and
> religious definitions.
>

Of course we have a sannyasa option in the west.  It may take more effort
and you may not have the willpower to pursue it but that's  your problem
not the Wests.

> This knowledge has gone beyond those India.  It's important to look
> at what is the intention, the idea behind these social forms referred to
> in these texts..
>

Our Dharma is refered to as Sanatan or eternal.  It is completely valid in
any place and any time.

> Also, it may help if people remember that Shankara was writing for a
bunch
> of swamis often so he could make his comments in support of the lifesyle
> they all had adopted.  He was perfectly clear that karma, including
lifestyle,
> doesn't produce the paramaatma in a person.
>

True, just being a sannyasi doesn't guarantee Moksha but not being a
Sannyasi guarantees you won't acheive Moksha.

> To be a normal. well balanced successful person anywhere doing anything
> requires renunciation.  That is my observation after  thirty months
> intensive study with Swami Dayananda at Sandeepany West in Piercy, CA
> and now fourteen years "in the world".  It seemed to me that our ashram
at
> Piercy CA, funded by the hard earned money of Chinmaya Mission
> members was very much in the world as well.  We bought vegetables, did
the
> cooking, maintained the cars the grounds and the buildings, get along
with
> each other or didn't get along with each other.  Seemed just like "the
world" to
>  me.

Sounds like the world to me too.  Doesn't sound like Vedanta though.

--
Jaldhar H. Vyas [jaldhar at braincells.com]  I will choose.-_|\ free will
Consolidated Braincells Inc.                          /     \
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"Witty quote" - Dead Guy                                   v      McQ!