Forwarded mail....

[Ravishankar Venkatraman]

Bhadriah wrote:
>
>There is an opinion that when a descendent becomes a brahma jnani the
>descendent's pitrs automatically obtain liberation or the required lokas
>and
>no further shraddhas are needed. So Sankara's mother had already obtained
>what needs to be obtained when Sankara got brahma jnanam. In a way
>Sankaracharya's action is redundant from this angle.
>

It is said that when someone gets initiated into sanyasa ashrama, 21
generations of his paternal and maternal ancestors (pitrus) are sent to
Brahmaloka. It is equivalent to saying following a karma for becoming a
sanyasi (like tonsure, kaashaaya vastram, kamandalam and dhandam). I do not
know whether this is true about a brahma jnani who is not initiated into
sanyasa. Maybe you are right because because a brahmajnani is a sanyasi
anyway, irrrespective of what he wears or follows.

Ravi


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