[Advaita-l] Fw: Re: waking, dreaming, sleeping, as mutually supportive

[Shyam]

Pranams
Also - when we hear these restrictions from Shruti or from the Acharyas, its important to bear in mind that it is done primarily with the interests of the person at heart, and not necessarily in the spirit of propriety. 

This is not some elitist visa to a Utopian paradise - entry to which is being closely guarded by imposing restrictions or barriers on entry. This is a "lifestyle" - for want of a better term - characterized by severe physical hardships with no access to food, shelter, clothing, no security whatsoever, and utter solitutde. There has to be an enormous degree of emotional maturity in order to survive even one enitre day of this - let alone a committment to adopt this for a lifetime.

Renunciation is not desertion. If anyone and everyone were to desert their homes as a means of convenient escapism, perhaps due to a bad day at work or an argument in the family, then the very social order would collapse, and there is widespread harm to everyone. After all an unprepared mind may physically desert the home, but may take the home with it to the forest. Outwardly one may be away but inwardly the entire gamut of thoughts will be centered on the very life on has deserted. Such an occurence is most unfortunate -  primarily for this person's growth.

Hence when there seems to be a specification of a brahmana it is primarily on the basis of guna and not jati - after all janmana jayate shudra everyone is a shudra by birth. It is conduct alone that makes on a brahmana - na yonirnApi sa.nskAro na shrutaM na cha saMnatiH .
kAraNAni dvijatvasya vR^ittameva tu kAraNam (MB Anushasana parva 131:49) 

And who is a guna brahmana? 

dharmashcha satya.n cha damastapashcha amAtsarya.n hrIstitikShAnasUyA  yaGYashcha dAna.n cha dhR^itiH shrutaM cha mahAvratA dvAdasha brAhmaNasya .. 12..\\udyoga parva - 43:12

"Adherence to Dharma. Adherence to the Truth. Control of Sense-organs. Austerity - in body, in mind and speech. Absence of covetousness. Humility. Non-envy. Forbearance. Sacrifices - yajna, Charity - Danam, Adherence to vratas, Commitment to Vedic learning. These are the twelve qualifications for a brahmana."

And if we pay close attention to these qualities we can understand why only one so qualified would be suited for the physical hardships of monasticism - if one has not yet disciplined one's sense indulgences, and speech, if truth-telling is considered optional, if titksha is lacking - i.e. there is little capacity to endure pain - both physical and mental, and hunger and thirst - how is such a person to benefit from total renunciation? It is in this person's own self-interest that they spend more time in karmayoga and upasana, and gain in emotional maturity and in these qualities. Neither is the individual's interests served by prematurely embracing a lifestyle he is illsuited for temparementally nor is the institution as many such ill-equipped failures only bring disrepute to it.

The chief qualification for sannyasa is of course intense and mature vairagya and consequent mumukshutvam. The Parivrajaka upanishad says that the moment one is seized with such vairagya one should become an ascetic that very moment - regardless of any other clause. And that itself is borne out of prior samskaras and many lifetimes of accumulation of punya, and typically in Ishwara's infallible Order results in a birth and upbringing in an approrpiate environment alone.

Hari OM
Shri Gurubhyoh namah
Shyam  

> On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 4:02 PM, Vidyasankar Sundaresan
> <
> svidyasankar at hotmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
> >
> >
> > > My view is that the gnaana maarga is apt only for
> the Brahmanas because
> > of
> > > the guna composition of his varna and not
> suitable for persons of other
> > > varnas for the same reason. A mumukshu becomes a
> sanyaasi on the
> > initiation
> > > by a Guru and on realization becomes a Guru
> himself. Such ability to
> > impart
> > > knowledge is part of realization. The Sankara,
> Vaishnava and Maadhva
> > Mutts
> > > are examples of who had the adhikaaram to become
> a Sanyaasi. Those who
> > > realized through other maargas seldom competed
> for such adhikaaras.
> >
> > So, this argument that the jnAna mArga is to be
> limited to only brAhmaNa-s
> >
> > and that people of other varNa-s have no adhikAra to
> become saMnyAsins
> >
> > would seem like an ultra-conservative view that is not
> upheld even by some
> >
> > of the most notable AcAryas of advaita vedAnta
> tradition.
> >
> >
> >
> > Vidyasankar
> >
> >
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