[Advaita-l] Did Sankara have non-brahmin disciples?

[drdbharadwaj at gmail.com]

' But how do we know who is a jnaani, so we can...'  

Sri Ravi,

This is a crucial issue for a genuine seeker.  All of face it in seeking for the Truth sometime or the other.  

This question was put to the Lord by Arjuna and was addressed by the Lord quite thoroughly.  

Pranam


Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone

-----Original Message-----
From: ravi chandrasekhara <vadhula at yahoo.com>
Sender: advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2010 20:27:57 
To: Satish Arigela<satisharigela at yahoo.com>; A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta<advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Reply-To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta
	<advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Did Sankara have non-brahmin disciples?

Pranam,

Satish brought out good and relevant answers.  But how do we know who is a jnaani, so we can tread on spiritual path ?  It appears only jnaanis (like Adi Shankara, etc) can know this answer.  I'll point out illustrations of those who appear contradictory to shastra:

1.ISKCON, Arya Samaj, etc do not follow all of shastra and at times contradictory to veda-adhikara.
2.Gayatri Pariwar (founder is a Braahmana) gives initiation into Gayatri Mantra for anyone.
3.Swami Nityananda (don't know of which varna) had relationship with a girl.  While not a legal crime as it was consentual mutually, it was a dharmic crime.

Another issue is that a spiritual guru is recommended to be a Brahmanistha and a shrotriya.  But is not a shrotriya a Braahmana ?

Any thoughts.

Ravi Chandrasekhara




      
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