[Advaita-l] some questions on self-realization.

[srikanta]

Pranams.
For a person who is on the path of realization,there will be many
hurdles.Any amount of soothing words may not be sufficient.His endeavour
will be to attain his goal.If one were to follow Shankara's dictum to take
to sanyas as a Ashrama vidhi one must have the guts to do it and abandon
his samsara along with the parapherlania.But,Shankara Bhagawatpada in his
commentaries on Brahmasutras,Upanishads,Bhagawadgita reiterates that
Self-realization is within everyone's reach.No vidhi or kriya can help one
to attain it.His illustious disciple,Sureshwaracharya also in his
"Naishkarmyasiddhi"again and again says that self-realization is possible
in this very birth.For a jnani,even taking sanyas is within the locus of
avidya,for if only you change your Ashrama you can attain
self-realization,which violates the very statement of Shankara. A Parivrat
is a vividhisha sanyasi,who is on the path to realise.That means
self-realization depends on right-perception,samyagjnana.If one were to
get self-realization by putting on the ochre robe as Krishna says in
Bhagawadgita,there would be a crowd as we already see now a days.For a
real self realized person he does not mind where he lives."Yogarathe va
bhoga rathe va nandati nandati nandati eva".Sri.Sachidanandendra
saraswatiji of Holenarsipur says in his book on Bhagawadgita that in the
olden days there were Jnanis with the Yajnopavita.If one cannot leave the
Grahasthashrama due to some reason,he can continue in the same ashrama
after realization.For him samsara is not an hinderance.

Bhava Shankara desika me Sharanam.                                        
      N.Srikanta.