[Advaita-l] giving up of karma

[bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com]

but in the final analysis, it IS an inconsistency and there is no point in
looking for a justification.

praNAms
Hare Krishna

A good observation..yes it is an inconsistency on the part of saNyAsin-s
nowadays...yajnOpavItaM vEdAmshcha sarvaM tat varjayEt yatiH...says
bruhadAraNyaka. Here shruti says sanyAsi should leave even vEda....However,
shankara elsewhere  says that he can keep only praNava (OmkAra) as this is
the essence of all vEda-s... shankara in sUtra bhAshya quotes jAbAla shruti
while talking about the *adhikAratva* for the brahma jnAna, ..Here he
describes the characteristics of a saNyAsi & says those who is clean
(shuchiH)  wears ochre robs (vivarNavAsA), tonsures his head completely
(muNdO), observes aparigraha (aparigrahaH), lives on alms (bhikshAcharyA)
is eligible to 'become' brahman. So, saNyAsa is an *anga* to attain brahma
jnAna...Hence,  there is absolutely no sanction of doing any sort of
loukika or vaidika karma (including upAsana, dEvatA pUja etc.)  for
saNyAsins...But who cares for these type of saNyAsi-s nowadays :-))  if at
all anybody comes alone  for alms on streets wearing kAshAya vastra, we
treat him as begger not a *mumukshu* saNyAsi :-)) To treat him as a
*respected saNyAsi*, he should have atleast 2-3 educational  institutions,
hospitals under his belt, should be always surrounded by his disciples,
should be often visited by polyticians for AshirvAdam, should have the
branches of his ashram all over the world, last but not the least he should
have good command over English to appease the intellecutual brains...then
only we treat him as a saNyAsi.  I think,  that is the reason why, our
matAdhipati-s, peetAdhipati-s nowadays have become big business tycoons &
great orators and parallelly spending some free time towards saNyAsa dharma
just to maintain the saNyAsi status in society:-))  There are some
exceptions, I am not denying that...but generally that is what we see in
today's world &  perception of the public on saNyAsi goes like this...

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar