[Advaita-l] Knowledge, renunciation and varNASrama rules

Varadaraja Sharma rishyasrunga at rediffmail.com
Thu Aug 19 03:10:40 CDT 2010


Radhe Krishna,

I have referred the portion of Sankara Bhashya on Gita with respect to Bhagawan discouraging Arjuna for sanyasa. I am reproducing it :

“SokamohAbhyAm hi abhibhUtavivekagnyAnaH svatha eva kshathra dharma yudhe prvruthopi thasmAd yudhAd upararAma.  Paradharmancha bikshAjIvanAdhikam karthum pravavruthe”

“ThathA cha sarvaprANinAm SokamohAdi doshAvishtachetasAm svabhavatha eva svadharma parithyAgaH pratishidhasevA cha syAt”

I have never read Shankara bhashya before. Not a sentence. I do not have samskrutha bhasha knowledge sufficient enough to analyse and  understand bhasyha. I read the translation for this and tried to grasp the purport. 

With respect to specific part of the sentence given below :-
kshAthra dharma yudhe pravruthaH ------- paradharmancha bhikshAjIvanAdhikam kartum pravaruthe

svadharma parithyagaH pratishidhasevA cha syAt

The prima facie meaning I understood from the translation is that the svadharma of arjuna is performing yudha being a ksharthriya. Himself being a kshathriya bikshAcharaNapoorvaka  parivrAjaka prvruthi is paradharma . It is explicitly conveyed that for a kshathriya bikshAjIvanAdhikam is paradharma.  Ofcourse although it is not explicitly conveyed here that bhikshAjiVanAdhikam is exclusive svadharmA of a brAhmaNa.

Does this further mean that for a kshathriya sanyAsa is paradharma

Radhe Krishna







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