[Advaita-l] Is vairAgya/renunciation a result of glumness??

[Dr. V. Prasanna Shrinivas]

Namaste

Catastrophes strike everyone. If catastrophy alone were the reason,
all of us would have been sanyasins by now. But only one in a million
has the inclination to take up serious enquiry into the SELF.

"muktirno shatajanmakoTisukR^itaiH puNyairvinaa labhyate"

says the great Acharya Shankara.


Even if one took sanyasa it does not mean one would attain the Brahman


"aatmaikyabodhena vinaapi muktiH na sidhyati brahmashataantare.api "


Let us take the argument of being adhered to some mutt/ashram etc.
Does everyone who is attached to a mutt gets sanyasa....very few
qualify and yet very few actually get it.

There are ample evidences in the unbroken lineage of the Sringeri
Mutt. what catastrophe did strike H H Sri Sureshwaracharya? One could
only say that Acharya Shankara blessed Him for Sri Sureshwara was
verily qualified.

If one reads the books "Sri Guru Krupaa Vilaasam", one may find
incidents replete with the kind of viveka vairagya that were present
in the young bala yogi (Srinivasan) who later by the grace of His guru
went on to become the greatest saint of 20th century and dearly known
to His devotees as Sri Mahasaniidhanam. What catastrophe did strike
Him?

It is because of the kind of training He underwent in this birth and
the good deeds of the past that qualified Him to become a disciple of
His guru Sri Chandrashekhara Bharati Mahaswamigal that made Him worthy
of occupying the transcendental throne of wisdon.

Just as Acharya Shankara says in Bhajagovindam

artham anartham etc...and in vivekachudamani

ato vimuktyai prayatet vidvaan.h
    sa.nnyastabaahyaarthasukhaspR^ihaH san.h .
santaM mahaantaM samupetya deshikaM
    tenopadishhTaarthasamaahitaatmaa

These great men realized that the worldy existence would be a
catastrophe and surrendered to a Sadguru.

Mere catastrophes may give momentary vairagyam. Just as smashaana
vairagyam or prasava vairagyam.  But the vasanas do not disappear
which drag us back to square one.

It is shradhha and abhyasa that would give us viveka and vairaagya by
Guru's grace.

Sadguro Sharanam

Prasanna


On 7/19/07, bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com <bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com> wrote:
>
> praNAms
> Hare Krishna
>
> Yesterday I was discussing with one of my friends casually, the topic was
> about vairAgya.  He said that vairAgya or dispassion is always a result of
> some grief in one's life.  He took the examples of buddha, dhruva, ramaNa
> maharshi & argued, see buddha had to see the miseries of life, dhruva had
> to suffer from his step mother & ramaNa had to undergo that strange
> experience of death to get vairAgya....If everything is going fine in one's
> life, he/she never even think about vairAgya despite he/she is very
> philosophical & spiritual in his/her normal approach towards life.   My
> friend continued to argue, though most of us  know the importance & talk
> hours together about  dispassion & renunciation etc.  we never try to put
> them into practice coz. we donot want to come out of our comfort zone.   I
> thought in a way, he is right!!! Because, I've not seen/heard any incident
> where one, who was leading a comfortable & secured  life took saNyAsa by
> mere discrimination (vivEka) without any untoward incidents..Either there
> must be a severe catastrophe in his/her life or there must be a traditional
> obligation (thouse who belong to & studied under the guidance of orthodox
> saNyAsa Ashrama/ mutt) to force them to adopt themselves to saNyAsi way of
> life or to the path of vairAgya.
>
> I know this is only limited vision of vairAya...I'd be highly obliged if
> prabhuji-s share any additional thoughts on this subject.  If those
> thoughts make me to think about  the path of vairAgya seriously,  nothing
> like that!!
>
> Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
> bhaskar
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Archives: http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/
>
> To unsubscribe or change your options:
> http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l
>
> For assistance, contact:
> listmaster at advaita-vedanta.org
>


-- 
Thanks and regards

Dr. V. Prasanna Shrinivas
Mobile: +91-99002 17109
Phone:+91-80-233 69953