[Advaita-l] Pitrupkasha questions.

[Praveen R. Bhat]

Hari Om, Srikantaji,

On Tue, Sep 27, 2011 at 5:40 PM, Srikanta Narayanaswami <
srikanta.narayanaswami at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Further,SriShankara has not talked about the prarabdha you are
> mentioning.If it is for those who cannot giveup karma due to Prarabdha as
> you are claiming,then even otherwise the people may go astray.


Once again, you seem to be stuck on 4.18, while I clearly mentioned with
quotations that sannyAsa is clarified in his commentary to the NEXT verse
4.19. The question of otherwise also people may go astray doesn't arise at
all since I'm claiming nothing other than what Bhagavatpada says using the
exact word 'prArabdha' & the exact phrase 'people going astray':

"He again who, having been engaged in actions under the influence of past
tendencies, later on becomes endowed with the fullest Self-knowledge, he
surely renounces (all) actions along with their accessories as he does
not find any purpose in activity. For some reason, if it becomes impossible
to renounce actions and he, for the sake of preventing people from going
astray, even remains engaged as before in actions-without attachment to
those actions and their results because of the absence of any selfish
purpose-, still he surely does nothing at all! यस्तु प्रारब्धकर्मा सन्
उत्तरकालमुत्पन्नात्मसम्यग्दर्शनः स्यात्, सः सर्वकर्मणि प्रयोजनमपश्यन् ससाधनं
कर्म परित्यजत्येव। सः कुतश्चित् निमित्तात् कर्मपरित्यागासंभवे सति कर्मणि
तत्फले च सङ्गरहिततया स्वप्रयोजनाभावात् लोकसंग्रहार्थं पूर्ववत् कर्मणि
प्रवृत्तोऽपि नैव किञ्चित् करोति"

So there is no selective giving up of nitya-naimittika karmas only, no
matter how those seeking to give up only vaidika karmas see it and its
dropping all karma, becoming a sannyAsi.

As Lalitaalaalitahji also says that the discussion is heading nowhere
useful, I end my arguments on this thread, clarifying my stand as per my
understanding of Shankaracharya & the tradition that:
i) I'm not saying that karma kANDa leads to moksha, but it strengtens
sAdhana cAtuShTaya when dedicated to Ishvara.
ii) I'm not claiming that karma kANDa shouldn't be given up, but it should
be given up for j~nAna *only* when *all* karma can be given up, into
sannyAsa, except for maintenance of body.

praNAm,
--Praveen R. Bhat
/* Through what should one know That owing to which all this is known!
[Br.Up. 4.5.15] */