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

[Praveen R. Bhat]

Hari Om, Bhaskarji,

On Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 3:48 PM, Bhaskar YR <bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com> wrote:

And after perfecting sAdhana chatushtaya, shankara asks us to do brahma
> jignAnsa (for example shankara's commentary on the word 'atha' in the
> first sUtra)..
>

atha being a loaded word, the commentary goes 10-15 pages and all of that is
to indicate sAdhana cAtushTaya, alright.


> And in that sAdhana chatushtaya, two sAdhana-s are. : ihAmutra phala bhOga
> virAga' & shama damAdi shatsaMpatti  which are to be perfected before
> brahma jignAsa...If it all these two sAdhana-s relate to saNyAsa ( because
> saNyAsi-s are advised to do shama damAdi sAdhana & ofcourse vairAgya) then
> before becoming the 'mumukshu',  sanyAsa is recommended at the stage of
> sAdhana chatushtaya itself  is it not??

So, can we say before talking
> about brahma jignAsa, the aspirant should first take vividisha saNyAsa
> during the practice of sAdhana chatushtaya??  ..Kindly clarify your stand
> on this.
>

Interesting derivation, but I'd like to differ in the outlook here please.
Just because pre-saMnyAsa, one is required to have shaTsampat, it doesn't
mean one has to give up post-saMnyAsa, does it? So instead of adding
additional complications, I understand the meaning of "before brahma
jignAsa" as to mean "before saMnyAsa", but not to give them up
post-saMnyAsa. saMnyAsa then becomes the domain of someone to do
brahmajignAsa, which is when vividishA is advised in jIvanmukti viveka.

praNAms,
--Praveen R. Bhat
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