[Advaita-l] Jivanmukti - Jnana plus Sannyasa pt 4

Bhaskar YR bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com
Thu Oct 8 04:14:56 CDT 2009


1. Renunciation in toto of all efforts including those considered critical 
for ensuring the continued life of the body,
2. Living on the absolute minimal of food and that too obtained by chance 
and typically as alms, 
3. Being completely bereft of ANY possessions whatsoever
4. Having no ties or relationships with anyone else in the world - i.e. 
living in solitude
5. Having a mind/intellect singlepointedly and all-cunsumingly devoted 
exclusively to the Lord.

praNAms
Hare Krishna

I am afraid, these descriptions are good & worth  enough to read ONLY on 
paper...Nobody (both bygone Acharya-s & presently living saNyAsi-s in any 
of the trimatastha saMpradAya) would satisfy above conditions. 

Condition No.1 reminds me 'sallekhana vrata' of jaina monks...I request 
Sri shyam prabhuji to be more specific when he says :'efforts those 
considered critical for sustaining the life of the body'...I donot know 
whether these critical efforts include breathing and taking food also. And 
how many Acharya-s we see wearing only a strip of cloth??  this includes 
my parama guruji also.  SanyAsi-s normally wear loin cloth as an inner 
garment & on above they wear 2 mtrs. kAshAya vastra. 

Condition No. 2 :  How many present day Acharya-s fulfilling this 
condition??  'food obtained by chance that too as alms'...I dont know how 
many present day Acharya-s following this in toto...No offence is meant 
here...Even my parama guruji Sri SSS also was not doing bhikshAtana but I 
heard that people used to say : this is the time for bhikshA to 
swamiji...But food was supplied to his place...I think this is what is 
happening today in traditional advaitik mutts also with a mouth watering 
menu :-)) .  And I myself seen a saNyAsi Sri jnAnaprasUnendra   Saraswati 
in Mattur, Karnataka, he used to come from his hermitage to Sri Keshava 
AvadhAni ( a gruhastha priest)'s house for bhiksha one time in a day... 

Condition No. 3 :  I am not able to comment on this...shankara's sarvajna 
peeTArOhaNa comes to my mind immediately :-))

Condition No. 4 :  Sri RamaNa bhagavAn used to love cow lakshmi and also 
insisted a place to bury her after death...shankara bhagavatpAda promised 
her mother that he will be there before her death..my parama guruji, as I 
heard, used to move with his relations & his pUrvAshrama mates very 
frequently..I dont think these are all possible unless there is a 'special 
relationship'...Or otherwise, from a vedAntic view : They do, but they 
donot :-)) 

Condition No. 5 :  then how shankara went to mandana mishra for 'vAda 
bhiksha' ??  why & how he wrote volumes of bhAshya citing pUrvapaxa, why 
he wanted to give suitable answer to house wife's question??  How can a 
single pointed mind could see somany contradictions & conflictions in 
vedAnta prapancha..

Having said all this, kindly dont think I am outrightly rejecting the 
possibility of existence of sanyAsi-s who fulfill all the above 
conditions...But if some one does this, he would certainly remain 
'anonymous'...not the noted & popular figures...Unfortunately saNyAsi-s 
who we know, heard, seen donot fulfill either one of the above conditions. 
 What we come to know from this??  The bAhyAcharaNa & external attitudes & 
activities hardly matters when one is PERFECT renunciate in mind. 

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar



More information about the Advaita-l mailing list