[Advaita-l] shankara in bruhadAraNyaka on 'saNyAsa'

[Bhaskar YR]

When we talk about Janaka we should bear in mind that in the Bhagavad Gita 
(3.20) Lord Krishna said that through action alone Janaka did Siddhi-labh 
ie. achieved Perfection.  This, to my mind, means that Janaka had ended up 
doing only Niskaama Karma and thus he achieved Sannyasa without taking to 
Sannyasha. Does this not mean that despite being a Kshatriya nothing 
remained for Janaka to achieve?

praNAms Sri Sunil prabhuji
Hare Krishna

Yes, this is what exactly I am trying to say here.  Kings like janaka & 
ashvapati etc. have continued their karma due to past momentum, but they 
did it with 'anAsakta' bhAva...And there is no doubt in janaka's jnAna, 
coz. in mahAbhArata itself it is said that sage shuka went to janaka for 
the brahma vidya & janaka obliged the request after testing shuka.  For 
the sake of lOka saMgraha & for saving the mankind, these jnAni-s can 
still continue to do karma with naishkarmya siddhi.  Krishna himself 
admits it in the subsequent verse : na me pArthAsi kartavyaM trishu 
lokeshu kiMchana, nAnavAptamavAptvyaM 'varta eva cha karmaNi'.  There is 
nothing to do for a jnAni in all the three worlds, there is absolutely 
nothing worth attaining or otherwise for him. But still bhagavAn himself 
continued to work & advised arjuna 'svadharme nidhanam shreyaH...Because 
whatever shreshta does, the society would follow it, whatever standard he 
sets up, the normal people would follow the same.  So, as long as one is 
living in society, interacting with public, he has to 'work' with the 
bhAva of 'yOga'.  This rule is equally applicable to both jeevan mukta as 
well as loukika-s says Sri ParamArthananda-ji in vivekachudaamaNi 
discourse.   That is the reason why even today we could see pooja, dhyAna, 
upAsana performed by the 'jagadguru-s' saNyAsi-s even in advaita peeTams.

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar