[Advaita-l] Is vairAgya/renunciation a result of glumness?? (on Asoka) (fwd)

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Lakshminarayana <narayana_kl_71 at yahoo.com>

srirudra writes:

"King Ashoka comes to my mind when he vowed that he will not
indulge in another war after the Kalinga war in which he was
victorious. His vairagya came after a success and he embraced
Budhdhism."


Namaste, I dont think Asoka is a good example for vairAgya,
even after he converted to Buddhism. According to Asokavadhana,
which is a buddhist text, Asoka slaughtered 18000 jains even
AFTER he converted to Buddhism, because of a perceived insult
of the Buddha by a jain monk. He realized his mistake only when
one of his favorite (buddhist) monk was mistaken to be a jain
and killed. I doubt if any real vairAgi (if that's a legitimate
word) would indulge in such acts.

Regards
-Lakshminarayana