[Advaita-l] Sankara on sannyAsa for Steadiness in GYAna (was Re: Jivanmukti - Jnana plus Sannyasa pt 5)

[Shyam]

Dear Sarma-ji and Sunil-ji
Pranams. Your point is well taken. However let me offer this perspective.

Granted that "once upon a time" in a different yuga a once-in-a-kalpa Janaka may have attained jivanmukti even while remaining as a Kshatriya King - in fact it was so long ago that even Shankara, in "our" times does not give this a resounding affirmation. And granted that again "once upon a time" there were Brahmarshis and mantradrashtas like Vishwamitra, Vasishtas, who were perfected Sages, without being "sannyasis". And "once upon a time" Lord Krishna, Lord Rama, etc etc. Is this really meant to be of relevance to a serious and sincere seeker? "Once upon a time" Bhagwan Hanuman crossed over to Ceylon with one giant leap. Surely the next time one "seeks to reach" Sri Lanka, one has the sense to board a flight, instead of jumping into the Ocean from Kanyakumari shouting "Jai Shri Ram".

The fact is perhaps one in a million like Janaka may have, thanks to prior-birth samskaras, been blessed with the felicity to maintain his vision on the Self even while engrossed in the affairs of His state - or so the legend goes. A little common sense will tell us that this is, simply put, impossible for a seeker for "today's" (at least for a few centuries now and more so today than ever before) householder, mired in the din of a hundred sense pleasures, and being riddled with a hundred different samsaric duties and responsibilities, to maintain an unbroken stream of thought all unceasingly centered on the Self to the exclusion of ALL other thought - in the words of the panchadashi 'etadekaparatvamha Brahmabhyasam' - and without this vasana kshaya/manonasha and jnananishta is impossible.

And this is what both Shruti and Shankara never tire of emphasizing time and again.

Humble pranams
Shri Gurubhyoh namah
Shyam

--- On Wed, 10/21/09, D.V.N. Sarma <dvnsarma at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: D.V.N. Sarma <dvnsarma at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Sankara on sannyAsa for Steadiness in GYAna (was Re: Jivanmukti - Jnana plus Sannyasa pt 5)
> To: "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
> Date: Wednesday, October 21, 2009, 8:35 PM
> Has anybody any information about
> vedic rishis like Vasishta,
> Vamadeva, Bhrigu, Viswamitra
> etc., taking sannyasa?
> 
> Yajnavalkya comes later in the upanishadic period.
> 
> regards,
> Sarma.
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