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

[Bhaskar YR]

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..

praNAms
Hare Krishna

It is not all that impossibility (asAdhya) as inferred above...While on 
the subject, I dont have any hesitation to bring couple of personal names 
here, as I have myself seen the life style of these noble personalities. 
First one is our revered Sri Subbu prabhuji, he is not a formal saNyAsi 
nor a gruhastha, but his life style is nothing short than a saNyAsi...He 
is dedicating his whole life in doing shAstrOkta sharvaNAdi sAdhana.The 
only fault, the perfectionists could find in him is, he is wearing normal 
dhoti, shirt & chappals & using lap top for the communication:-)) Othewise 
IMO, he is vairAgya personified... I may have difference of opinion with 
him, but that does not come in the way of my prostrations to this mahAtma. 
 So, he is the one standing example to us how a human being can lead a 
systamatic life of a saNyAsi without taking formal saNyAsa initiation...He 
lives in the heart of the city but his life is as good as a hermitage at 
forest. 

Another one is Sri Lakshmi mAtAji, I met her in Shrungeri, like subbuji, 
she too living alone & doing nothing except shAstra chintana, manana & 
nidhidhyAsana.  What can we call her??   is she a formal saNyAsini??  a 
housewife??  No, she is a mumukshu, jignAsu with all the shraddha & bhakti 
in sampradAya & sAmpradAyik teachings.  I dont want to call these people 
as saMsAri-s even I've seen them amidst the crowd of other saMsAri-s. 

By the way,  I am not able to understand, what these sincere seekers of 
'today' doing here in this cybernet & wasting their time in writing 
volumes & volumes on saNyAsa??  They have already ruled out personal 
examples of non-sanyAsi-s provided by shankara as 'bygone era characters & 
one in billion exception'...And they have the firm conviction that there 
is NO WAY OUT without saNyAsa,  And they themselves thinking that they are 
on par with sincere mumukshu-s & ready to see the 'rascal dam' in others' 
hearts!!!... alas!! what they are doing here wasting their precious time 
!!??  They are merely  preaching 'the saNyAsa' without bothering to follow 
this VIDHI...They are ready to show all the references, quotes from n' no. 
grantha-s & preaching the importance of saNyAsa and NOT ready to comeout 
of the 'Operation Theatre of saMsAra :-))  It is quite funny to see these 
type of 'lip service' modern day cybernet saNyAsi-s who are comfortably 
sitting in AC rooms asking people to retire to forest :-)) wearing luxury 
suits and asking people to wear strap of cloth :-))  What the heck of the 
business they are doing here in this saMsAra especially when they think 
themselves that  they are sincere 'mumukshus' & for these mumukshu-s 
'saNyAsa' is the indispensable path :-))  God only knows the intention of 
these peculiar & uncharacteristic prabhuji-s :-))  A little 'common sense' 
would be more than enough on the part of the neutral reader to make out 
the hypocrisy behind the emotional song & dance in favour of saNyAsa :-)) 

I may be harsh in my above observation...but fact remains!!!!

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar