[Advaita-l] Dharma

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Wed, 24 Nov 2004, Raghavendra N Kalyan wrote:

>  Now, my question is not in anyway related to the arrest of the AchArya.
> It is related to dharma. The acharya was a sannyasi and was regarded as
> the upholder of dharma. But are we not in agreement that a householder
> follows dharma while a sannyasi renounces it? Renunciation not in the
> sense that the sannyasi follows adharma, but in the sense that he has
> renounced the world and dharma is also a part of tthe world. More
> generally, should a sannyasi renounce dharma or should he uphold it? Or
> does a sannyasi have his own dharma? (which appears a bit odd
> considering that he is a "sannyasi").
>

I recommend to my daughter Shailaja that she drinks milk everyday to be
big and strong.  Am I a hypocrite because I myself don't drink milk
everyday in order to be big and strong?  Or is that I am already big and
strong?

In a way this is the inverse of the previous discussion.  Can someone who
is not karmanishta teach karma?  Well what is the point of karma?  This is
one of the issues where Mimamsakas and Vedantins who otherwise share many
common views on the nature of the Vedas, disagree.  For the former,
actions are an end to themselves.  They enable us to get good results and
avoid bad results.  For the latter, actions are purely a sacrifice to the
Lord.  The ultimate goal of karma is to transcend the need for karma.
Thus a sannyasi who is shrotriya and brahmanishta is the highest role
model for the karmayogi as well.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
It's a boy! See the pictures - http://www.braincells.com/nilagriva/