[Advaita-l] the qualification to be an advaita guru

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms
Hare Krishna

Its very interesting that bhAShyakAra himself says "yes" to the above
question and goes to great lengths to justify why shravana etc are not the
only means for jnAnam. 

>  That is really very interesting to know that there are 'somany' means 
to attain brahmajnAna!!.  In that case, even shrotriyatva is not required, 
a brahmanishTa, who attained this brahma jnAna through some other means 
can impart this knowledge to others without taking an iota of help from 
shAstra.  Is it not?? 

He says that brahmajnAna can take place through independent alternative 
means like tapas, shraddha, past-karma etc etc. TOO. (Brihadaranyaka 
bhashya 1.4.2)

> Kindly pardon me, I seriously doubt the context of this bhAshya 
vAkya..Anyway, I shall check the originals tonight.  can 'past-karma' too 
fetch us the brahma jnAna??  IOW,  can a karma give us the ultimate 
paramArtha jnAna??  It seems the answer is affirmative above, but I dont 
think that is what the intention of bhagavatpAda in the above bhAshya 
vAkya.  If there is multiple roads to ultimate destination, then the 
shruti pronouncement 'nAnyaH panTha vidyateyanAya' needs to be read in 
some other way.  However, there is no dispute that these accessory 
sAdhana-s would help us to pursue the jnAna mArga through shravaNAdi 
'DIRECT' means.

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar