[Advaita-l] Sankara on sannyAsa for Steadiness in GYAna (was Re: Jivanmukti - Jnana plus Sannyasa pt 5)

[Praveen R. Bhat]

Hari Om, Kartikji,

On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 10:36 AM, S Jayanarayanan <sjayana at yahoo.com> wrote:

> What is generally taught by advaitins is:
> "For one who has attained GYAna in the householder stage, vidvat-sannyAsa
> is prescribed in order to steady the GYAna and achieve jIvanmukti".
>
> Unfortunately, the above has been (intentionally?) misinterpreted, and some
> myths have been propagated in this thread...
>

The very idea of saMnyAsa not being necessary for jivanmukti belittles the
ashrama itself. Then there are all types of reasons for not being able to
take to saMnyAsa. I consider all of them bogus, except one: no mumukshatva.
A mumukshu with a burning desire for liberation couldn't care any lesser
about any reason; he is hardly under the bandhana of being able to decide
something with a bias any more! Of course, the saMnyAsa upanishat lists
umpteen eligibility points for saMnyAsa but I don't think they bind a person
from being a vividishA saMnyAsi. I think the unstable j~nAna is the last
nail in the coffin for non-saMnyAsins. I do agree that saMnyAsa doesn't
guarantee stability on its own, while providing a perfect platform for it,
but non-saMnyAsa almost guarantees losing that glimpse of viveka-vairAgya
even... making it almost a dream postponed.

As I read the entire thread in the past 2 days, it looked as if it went all
over the place, became repetitive, but hardly made any conclusive points
either way. So, this is a wonderful summing up by you.

praNAms,
--Praveen R. Bhat
/* Through what should one know That owing to which all this is known!
[Br.Up. 4.5.15] */