[Advaita-l] ***UNCHECKED*** RE: Qualifications and Life style choices for a modern educated youth

[Nithin Sridhar]

At the Anugraha Bhashanam given after Shishya Swekara, Sri Bharati Tirtha
Swamiji explained the criteria and qualificatios based on which a
Shankaracharya was selected. He quoted from Mathamnaya Shasana that is
written by Adi Shankara, if I am not wrong. I guess this should set all
debates about the selection of Shankaracharya to rest. Everyone should
watch that Video.

-Nithin

On Thu, Jan 8, 2015 at 11:42 PM, Vidyasankar Sundaresan via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Dear Sujal ji,
>
> The inner purity that you highlight is what I described as the capability
> of meeting the highest
> standards of saMnyAsa dharma. Without that inner purity, this capability
> won't exist. Yes, not
> everybody is capable of becoming a Sankaracharya, which is why the
> successors are chosen
> with great care. Scholarship, even in the subtlest details of advaita
> philosophy, is easier to see,
> relatively speaking. It is a much bigger challenge to actually embody that
> scholarship.
>
> Best regards,
> Vidyasankar
>
> From: sujal.u at gmail.com
> Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2015 10:46:37 +0530
> Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] ***UNCHECKED*** RE: Qualifications and Life style
> choices for a modern educated youth
> To: svidyasankar at hotmail.com; advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
>
> Namaste,
>
> To add to the above explanation of point #2, I would like to add that for
> choosing a successor of the peetham, both scholarlyness and inner purity is
> necessary. Hence the divine intervention is necessary in choosing the
> successor. I feel that Jagadguru also has divine eyes which help him see
> the past and may be past lives of his disciples. Afterall not all become
> eligible to become a Shankaracharya :)
>
> Sri Abhinav Vidyatirtha's guru Sri Chendrashekhar Saraswati III didnt much
> cared about the activities going on in matha and so his disciple had to
> take care of it.
>
> OM
>
> Sujal
>
> "To disconnect from the self and to become Aware of anything else is
> nothing but unhappiness" - Bhagawan Ramana Maharshi
>
> He who has faith has all
> He who lacks faith, lacks all
> It is the faith int he name of lord that works wonders
> FAITH IS LIFE, DOUBT IS DEATH - Sri Ramakrishna
>
>
> On Thu, Jan 8, 2015 at 12:37 AM, Vidyasankar Sundaresan via Advaita-l <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Dear Sri Srikrishna,
>
>
>
> I will answer to the best of my ability about specifics.
>
>
>
> 1. An institution like the Sringeri Peetham, being a highly traditional
> one with a long history, needs
>
> a leader who combines depth in vaidika learning, SAstra scholarship, high
> levels of qualification in
>
> the well known sAdhana catushTaya, and nowadays, a bunch of additional
> secondary qualities as
>
> well. There are so many social, cultural and political expectations that
> people have on the head of
>
> such an institution, which don't bear much relation to the central
> traditional criteria for a saMnyAsin
>
> who has also to be a maThAdhipati. Fortunately, in the case of Sringeri,
> successive AcArya-s have
>
> been very careful in their choice of successor. Through the last century,
> the AcArya-s have also had
>
> the experience of routine education in regular schools, but have chosen,
> at a very young age, to
>
> focus their energies outside the usual career trajectories that the rest
> of us have chosen.
>
>
>
> 2. At Sringeri, the candidate for succession is chosen from among those
> who have an aptitude
>
> for traditional SAstra learning at a young age, in addition to standard
> vedAdhyayana. By that, I
>
> mean those who study saMskRta in depth and go on to study nyAya/tarka
> before getting into
>
> mImAMsA and vedAnta. Typically, it is someone who has intelligence,
> discipline and scholarship,
>
> along with demonstrating to the current AcArya's satisfaction that he is
> capable of meeting the
>
> highest standards in saMnyAsa dharma. Some of the upanishads would have
> already been learnt,
>
> as part of vedAdhyayana, but indepth vedAnta learning happens after the
> saMnyAsa dIkshA, which
>
> includes mahAvAkyopadeSa. Think of the rest of the training as part of
> nididhyAsana, if you will.
>
>
>
> 3. For people who come to advaita vedAnta without the benefit of a very
> traditional educational
>
> pathway, but with the benefit of a more modern education, there are
> multiple choices available.
>
> Most people who get involved deeply with the Ramakrishna Math, Divine Life
> Society, Chinmaya
>
> Mission and Arsha Vidya Gurukulam have such backgrounds and some among
> them go on to
>
> saMnyAsa also. In these cases too, it takes an enormous amount of
> discipline and time to build a
>
> Guru Sishya relationship for adhyAtma learning to mature. (I don't much
> like to use the English word
>
> spiritual in this context.)
>
> 4. Re: technology usage, yes, multiple adaptations to change have been
> made historically, but
>
> not without other sorts of consequences. Addressing a larger audience than
> two hundred years
>
> ago using microphones and broadcasting technology or using cars to travel
> is one thing. Using
>
> email and social media seems like an entirely different thing altogether
> and the Sringeri AcArya
>
> is very selective about personally using them, and for very good reason.
> These technologies
>
> require users to become deliberately bahirmukha in everyday behavior, as a
> result of which we
>
> are all becoming even more entrenched in what the kaThopanishad describes
> as parAn^ paSyati
>
> nAntarAtman. We are constantly directing our attention outwards, to the
> multiple objects, actual
>
> and virutal, that attract our attention, to the not-Self. In contrast,
> advaita sAdhana requires what
>
> sureSvarAcArya calls cittasya pratyak pravaNatA, an inward vision, an
> orientation that turns away
>
> from external objects. So I'm afraid that our expectations about eager
> adoption of the latest
>
> technologies with smartphones, email, twitter and facebook can be
> fundamentally at odds with
>
> the traditional discipline required of a newly initiated saMnyAsin, which
> is what I can guarantee
>
> the Sringeri AcAryas, both current and designate, will be very concerned
> about over the next few
>
> years.
>
>  Best regards,Vidyasankar
>
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