[Advaita-l] Knowledge, renunciation and varNASrama rules

[Bhaskar YR]

If Bhagavatpada is saying that strI or shUdra can attain moksha without
saMnyAsa, I do not think it is implicit that for a brAhmaNa too, saMnyAsa 
is
not a must to attain moksha. Could you kindly clarify as to if
Shankaracharya has explicitly mentioned that elsewhere specifically for a
brAhmaNa/ dvija?

praNAms Sri praveen prabhuji
Hare Krishna

No I dont think there is any explicit  quote in shankara bhAshya to say 
for brAhmaNa, saNyAsa Ashrama  is not a must to attain mOksha..Ofcourse I 
do agree that there is special & repeated emphasization on saNyAsa & its 
importance in brahma jignAsa  by shankara but at the same time  I dont 
think he would deny the mOksha for brAhmaNa-s for not taking 'formal' 
saNyAsa.  There is no explicit quote for this view point either.  Because 
we have the examples of nachiketa, mArkandeya, rishi vAma deva etc. on 
hand, who are history says not formal saNyAsi-s.  To attain mOksha or to 
realize sva-svarUpa, for any varNAshrami 'sAdhana chatushtaya' is an 
indispensable requisite NOT saNyAsa as an ashrama perse.  If we say out of 
chAturvarNa, for the brAhmaNa varNa saNyAsa is the must, then mOksha would 
become AshramAdheena for brAhmaNa-s.

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar