parakAya praveSa

[Ravi Mayavaram]

On Fri, 31 Jan 2003 20:43:27 -0500, Prasad Balasubramanian
<besprasad at LYCOS.COM> wrote:

>
>  Can someone explain the significance of Shankara Bagavadpaadal's doing
parakAya pravESam to answer the questions of Bharathi ?
>My question is that why did BhagavadpAdAl have to know kAmaSAstrA (only)
by doing parakAya praveSa ? As Bhagavadpaadaal was JivanMuktha, why did He
not answer those questions without doing parakAya praveSa ? If there is any
hidden significance in it, someone kindly explain it.
>
>Prasad


shankara took sannyAsa at a very young age, directly from brahmacharya
asharama. If he had answered all the questions on kAma shaastra, where few
of which required direct experience, some would have doubted his integrity
and character. Because not all have and not all had the shraddha to accept
him as an all-knowing jnAni. Doubting Thomases are a norm in this world and
not an exception.

Hence, to avoid that possibility of misunderstanding, he had to play that
game of parakAya pravesha. He could have answered the questions even
without it, but he choose not to.

Sometimes using jnAna dR^ishhTi in such fields may even pose grave dangers
(e.g., niilakaNTha diixita's life).

This is my understanding, corrections are welcome.

My 2c.