[Advaita-l] Sri. Sankara performing the last rites for His mother (fwd)

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ravishankar Venkatraman <sunlike at hotmail.com>
Bhaskar wrote:

Being a vaidika dharma follower following saNyAsa
dharma you cannot violate the injuctions of dharma shAstra...more
importantly it is quite unacceptable if it is overlooked by jnAni  like 
shankara!!!it is an *apachAra* to the saNyAsAshrama dharma.

Praveen wrote:

Bhaskarji, without getting into the ongoing debate on
parakAyapravesha, may I request you to clarify your stand on
Shankara's performing his mother's last rites in the light of above
statement of yours?

Here is something that may of help to understand this situation:

This is a small event mentioned by a devotee of Kanchi Sankaracharya Sri. 
Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Mahaswamiji, which explains why Sri. Sankara did 
what He did.  If anything is misstated, it is primarily from my own listening 
and translating the discussion.

His Holiness was reading and discussing the contents of a book on Sankara. HH 
stopped at the place where the author was discussing Sankara performing the 
last rites of His mother. The author had stated that in spite of being a 
sanyAsi, Sankara’s action showed His devotion towards his mother and such 
devotion should be extolled.

His Holiness observed that Sri. Sankara never did anything against the sAstric 
injunctions, and such an observation of Him doing the last rite in spite of 
being a sanyAsi was not appropriate. Based on “viswEswara smrti” (prescriptions 
and injunctions for sanyAsis), a sanyAsi who is born as the *only child* for 
his parents should perform the first day rites (out of the 10 days) for his 
parents. His Holiness added that Sri. Sankara did not go against the sAstric 
injunctions anytime during His life.

Thanks,
Ravi Venkatraman

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