[Advaita-l] A Pentad on the Path to Plenitude

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

Dear Anselmo,
 
There is a general answer and a person-specific answer to this. The general
position is that all are eligible to read and gain knowledge from the gItA, the
purANa-s etc. In the past, lack of knowledge of the Sanskrit language would
have been an obstacle, but nowadays, so many translations are available that
a sincere student can use fruitfully. In fact, today, the vast majority of those
who supposedly have inherited an adhikAra for studying the veda-s by virtue
of their birth do not fulful their responsibility towards learning.

The person-specific answer is that if the right adhikAra is there, a competent
guru will make an exception. This exception will not necessarily be with respect
to traditional learning of vedic recitation, but it can come in a variety of ways -
from imparting a mantra for meditation to giving full-fledged sannyAsa initiation.
There are many well documented instances of these exceptions. 
 
Your dedication and sincerity are very important. So don't worry much about
the lack of adhikAra in this birth to study the veda in a traditional setting. 
 
Regards,
Vidyasankar
 

> Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2011 11:25:51 -0700
> From: elmo_terbutilo at yahoo.com.mx
> To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
> Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] A Pentad on the Path to Plenitude
> 
> Namaste ¡
>  
> Hello everybody,
>  
> Please allow me to pose a question,
>  
> What should a foreign-outside-varnaashrama person do in order to follow Shankara's prescriptions ?
>  
> I have read in Brahma Sutras Bhasya that Shudras are not allowed to study the Veda,
>  
> and also the women and the mlecchas... in spite that there are examples of people like
>  
> Maitreyi or Ekalavya.
>  
> Before hand, thanks for your response.
>  
> 
>