[Advaita-l] Knowledge, renunciation and varNASrama rules

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms Sri Varadaraja Sharma prabhuji
Hare Krishna

I remember having read a list of brahmagnyanis (perhaps quoted by Shriman 
Bhaskar) from shruti texts which included dvijas as well as non dvijas ( I 
remember the name of Dharmavyada, the ‘kasai’). 

>  Infact, the names of dvija, non-dvija, sanyAsi-non-sanyAsi are from 
shankara bhAshya...Shankara categorically says non-dvija-s like 
dharmavyAdha, vidhura, nagna yOgi-s like saMvarta &  vAmadeva (who 
attained jnAna in his mother's womb itself) etc. are jnAni-s.  From this 
what we can make out is jnAna can be realized by ANY person IRRESPECTIVE 
OF his/her Ashrama and jnAni can be from any Ashrama and he should not be 
NECESSARILY belongs to sanyAsa Ashrama. 

I read the gist of compilation of purvamimamsa as beautifully compiled by 
Shriman Jayanarayanan.  One of the rules I remember is the names mentioned 
in shruti texts do not denote specific historical persons.  But the fact 
of vyaktiviseha of this vyakti being a chathurtha/panchama and being a 
brahma gnyani can not be ignored even if not specifically denote a 
historical person.  My doubt is because of vyaktivisesha, Dharmavyada is 
unadhikari for sanyasa svikaram.  That being the case and shruti referring 
the vyakti as brahmagnyani, by virtue of him not entitled for sanyasa 
ashrama, can we still say that he can not be truly a brahma nishta?

>  If we are unable to find any brahma nishTa (or jnAna nishTa) in any 
other Ashrama (ofcourse as against shankara's own clarification in this 
regard) then we have to say 'brahma nishTata' is an 'anga' of saNyAsa and 
without saNyAsa there can be NO jnAna at all whatsoever..This is not the 
case in bhAshya..For that matter to realize our true nature we need Atma 
jnAna not mere karma tyAga saNyAsa...It should be remembered that 'kevala 
Ashrama sveekAra' (saNyAsa in this case) would not fetch us Atma 
jnAna...For mOksha we need jnAna not 'Ashrama sveekAra' tasmAd kevalAdeva 
jnAnAt mOkshaH ityeshO arThaH nishchitO geetAsu sarva 
upanishatsucha..clarifies shankara in geeta bhAshya and he elsewhere 
further clarifies that : nApi saNyAsanAt eva kevalAt karma parityAgamAtrAt 
eva jnAna rahitAt siddhiM naishkarmya lakshaNAM jnAnayOgena nishTAM 
samadhigacchati na prApnOti (geeta 3-4)..So, in advaita, brahma jnAna or 
brahma nishTata is not any 'ashramAdheena'. 

>  Having said this, I am not belittling the 'sanyAsa dharma/Ashrama' (for 
that matter my parama guruji, Sri SSS took saNyAsa at the age of 65 and 
recently, my brahmachAri guruji Sri ChandramouLi avadhAni took formal 
saNyAsa!!) and its importance in brahma jignAsa but at the same time it is 
not fair to make sweeping statements which gives us the impression that 
brahma jnAna is the sole property of sanyAsa Ashrama.

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar

>