[Advaita-l] How can one claim to know Brahman?

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 20:25:03 -0800, praveen.r.bhat at exgate.tek.com
<praveen.r.bhat at exgate.tek.com> wrote:
> praNAm all,
> 
> Sorry, while also being glad, I can't keep off the topic :)
> 
> Maheshji wrote:
> > An observation to reinforce Sanjay's point:
> > The word Upanishad in Sanskrit literally means 'sitting in close
> > proximity'  so I guess our seers knew that close association with a
> > Guru was inescapable for understanding this knowledge.
> 
> Agreed. But since most of the expressed views by Sanjay and you are
> traditional in this new age forum, may I also add that the study of vedAnta,
> IMHO, is *traditionally* not done without an initiation into sanyAsa? In
> such a case, taking any of the *other* steps (one being probably better than
> the other), is still not *true (read, traditional) study of vedAnta*!
> (Others, please feel free to bash me up on limited understanding :)

[Not to be construed as "bashing"!]

In the upadeshasaahasrii, part 2 of the prose section, the model
student enquiring the teacher is presented as brahmachArin.

In the prashna upanishad bhAShya, sha.nkara points out that while
knowledge is accessible to people in all 4 stages of life, it is more
difficult for householders since they may have to resort to lies or
adharmic things to sustain a family. So, knowledge is mainly
accessible to the people in the other 3 stages. In any case, it's
certainly not only for people in the sanyaasa aashrama.

Rama