guru

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

Jaldhar H. Vyas wrote:

>On Sun, 10 Aug 1997, Giri wrote:

>>         And without a Guru, and strict adherence to dharma, liberation is
>> not possible.

>It is possible to go directly from Brahmacharya to sanyasa thereby
>skipping dharmic obligations altogether but this is because Sannyasa is
>the direct cause of moksha.  For anyone even slightly involved in worldly
>life strict adherence to Dharma as set forth in the shastras is essential.

A sannyAsi also has to follow dharma, albeit a different one from that
of householders. Eg, one of the mukhya dharma-s of a sannyAsi is
ahi.nsA, whereas a householder is not obliged to follow ahi.nsA always.
Eg, if there is a threat of physical harm to his family or himself, he
can defend himself, however for a sannyAsi it's not the case. Other
strict vows are brahmacharya etc which are also part of the sannyAsi-s
dharma.

The only ones above dharma and adharma are the GYAni-s. However they
will never give this as an excuse to indulge, as their followers would
get the wrong idea.

Ramakrishnan.