Upadesha panchaka of Shankara (Re: Advaita 1001)

[Ms. Aikya Param]

----------
Namaste Gummuluru,

The questions you have are valuable.  Sanyaasa is a both a lifestyle
which can be chosen and a life stage.  Neither the life stage not
the lifestyle are required to see the truth about the world and its
potential to make one happy.

 Surely, if one would go through every day with shama, dama,
uparati, titiksha, shraddhaa, is that not a quiet inner renunciation?
One can keep his/her eyes focused on the Self just by remembering
that it is the only reality.  That is a quiet internal act which doesn't
require orange cloth.

The scriptural status of Bhagavad Gita proves the point.  One
householder, Lord Krishna, was teaching another.  Did you ever think
of  how the book would read if Krishna and Arjuna had been brahmins
or maybe vaishyas?  In any case they were married men having a
hat at work.

These swamis are the ones who have the leisure to write texts.
We need some written by other people so folks don't get
confused by these passages that are just the swamis talking
to themselves...other swamis or potential swamis.

Aikya