sharaNAgati (Re: svadharma)

[Anand Hudli]

On Wed, 26 Jan 2000 05:46:25 -0800, Ravisankar Mayavaram
<miinalochanii at YAHOO.COM> wrote:


>Thanks Anand. Gita indeed has answers to most perplexing questions in
>life.
>
>I request you eloborate on what advaita-vedanta's view on sharaNagati,
>which krishna  emphasizes in giita.  In a telephone conversation with
>Aravind Krishna (who is on this list) he told me that shankara does
>bring it out in his stotra-s like (laxmi nR^isimha mama dehi
>karaavalambam). When one calls out with devotion to God asking him to
>lift him up (from the ocean of saMsara), isn't a beautiful way of
>surrender to the Lord.

 The principle of sharaNAgati or prapatti as found in shrivaiShNava
 works is not found in advaita. The only advaitin that I know of who
 comes close to something like sharaNAgati is MadhusUdana SarasvatI.
 But then he seems to treat it the same as bhakti.

 The support for sharaNAgati is often claimed to be gItA verse 18.66
 by the shrivaiShNavas, referring to the famous words "sarvadharmAn.h
 parityajya mAmekaM sharaNaM vraja ..."

 This does not mean, MadhusUdana points out, that one should abandon
 all karmas/duties and surrender to God. This will be against the
 teaching of the gItA itself because it drives home the point
 that all actions should be performed with a sense of dedication
 of the fruits of those actions to God or abandoning only the fruits
 of actions.

 As MadhusUdana says:

 nahyatra karmatyAgo vidhIyate .api tu vidyamAne karmaNi tatra-anAdareNa
 bhagavadekasharaNatAmAtraM brahmachArigR^ihasthavAnaprasthabhixUNAM
 sAdhAraNena vidhIyate |

 Abandonment of karmas is not being recommended here. Rather (what is)
 recommended commonly to people in all Ashramas - brahmachAris, gR^ihasthas,
 vAnaprasthas, and sannyAsins - is the performance of actions with an
 indifference (to their fruits) and with the sole sense of surrendering
 to God.

 The surrender to God is of three kinds according to MadhusUdana:

 tasyaivAhaM mamaivAsau sa evAhamiti tridhA |
 bhagavachchharaNatvaM syAtsAdhanAbhyAsapAkataH |

 After the ripening of sAdhana, surrender to God (BhagavachchharaNatva)
 is of three kinds. 1) Surrender with a sense of "I am His", 2)
 with a sense of "He is mine", and 3) "I am He" (sa evAhaM or sohaM).

 MadhusUdana says he has described all these in another work of
 his, the BhaktirasAyana. The last realization, "I am He" is the
 culmination of bhakti according to advaita.

 He says that this verse 18.66 is the concluding statement on
 bhakti yoga, just as the verse 18.46 with the words
 "svakarmaNaa tamabhyarchya siddhi.n vindati maanavaH" is the
 concluding statement on karma yoga, and the verse 18.55 with
 the words "tato maaM tattvato GYaatvaa vishate tadana.ntaram.h"
 is the concluding statement on GYAna-yoga. These three verses,
 18.46, 18.66, and 18.55 are then the key statments in the concluding
 chapter of the gItA.

 Anand

--
bhava shankara deshikame sharaNam

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>From ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG Sat Jan 29 11:32:05 2000
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Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2000 11:32:05 +0530
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Subject: Re: ADVAITA-L Digest - 27 Jan 2000 to 28 Jan 2000 (#2000-24)
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> > (Do you have the reference in 'Talks' for the Ramana discussions, Kartik? I
> > would be interested in looking this up - next month's discussions at the UK
> > Ramana Maharshi Foundation is on the topic of 'Mind and Heart'.)
> >
>
> I don't have the book with me now, but I can say for sure that it's in
> there somewhere. It's the only place I've come across the equation
> mind=Self.

It is mentioned in the discourse of 11 Jan 1946 in Day by Day with
Bhagavan.

"There is no difference. The mind turned inwards is the Self;
turned outwards, it becomes the ego and all the world. The cotton made
into various clothes, we call by various names.. But all clothes are
cotton. The one is real, the many are mere names and forms.

But the mind does not exist apart from the Self, i.e., it has no
independent existence. The Self exists without the mind, never the mind
without the Self."

In another message, Kartik wrote:

> "One who crosses the sea (samudrasaMyAnaM) loses his caste," according to
> the BaudhAyana DS 2,1,2,2. Govinda, a commentator on this shAstra explains
> that whosoever makes voyages by sea by means of a ship to another island
> loses his caste and needs to perform a prAyashchitta (penance) in order to
> re-enter the caste system. This is the traditional view, and there is some
> historical support that this was indeed accepted by orthodox Brahmins
> until about a century ago. It is only recently that BrAhmaNas have crossed
> the sea to other islands and yet didn't think it an offence at all. The
                                   ------------------------------
Hmmm.. how can you say that ? I was required to perform praayashcitta
after my return. Next time you perform a shraddha (in places like
Gaya etc..), tell the priest that you were abroad for a period, they
will do the necessary things and advise you suitably.  Of course,
don't do this and then go back to USA :-) :-)

namaste.

--
bhava shankara deshikame sharaNam

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