[Advaita-l] brahmacharya in Raja yoga abhyAsa and advaita anushtAna

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

Namaste,

However if you look at what Mahabharata says you will find that Shantanu tellsBhishma  that it is the right thing to have the second child. How can then one think of the second child as the product of lust. In fact if the first two are sons then probably one should aspire for a girl child as Manu says that the Kanyadana is the greatest of all the danas.

Regards,

Sunil KB



________________________________
 From: V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>
To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> 
Sent: Saturday, February 25, 2012 9:01 AM
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] brahmacharya in Raja yoga abhyAsa and advaita anushtAna
 
On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 10:48 PM, Gopal <gopal.gopinath at gmail.com> wrote:

> Respected members,
>
>
> Does the definition of Brahmacharya change with the sadhana mArga?   How do
> the sutrakArA-s treat the necessity of *brahmacharya* in the* *sAdhana in
> advaitic path? How do they define or expect the understanding of "*
> brahmacharya*"?
>
>  It is obvious if advaitic sAdhana is recommended to and practiced by
> sanyaasis and those who choose not to enter grihastAshrama. But  for a long
> time, advise and guidelines for advaitic practice have become common
> commodity discussed by various 'missions' , authors and self-declared
> advaitins who charmingly advocate the sAdhana in advaitic principles to
> everyone including all types of non-brahmachAris.
>
> In this situation, how should an aspirant or a wannabe-aspirant / student
> of advaita understand this requirement?
>

यदक्षरं वेदविदो वदन्ति

विशन्ति यद्यतयो वीतरागाः।

यदिच्छन्तो ब्रह्मचर्यं चरन्ति

तत्ते पदं संग्रहेण प्रवक्ष्ये।। Bhagavadgita 8.11।।

Shankara's comment here is: ब्रह्मचर्यं गुरौ चरन्ति आचरन्ति | Being
associated  with / under the tutelage of a Guru is brahmacharya.

In Kathopanishat 1.2.15 for the same sounding mantra as above, Shankara
says: ब्रह्मचर्यं गुरुकुलवासलक्षणम्, अन्यद्वा ब्रह्मप्राप्त्यर्थं चरन्ति
... The extra component in this bhashya is: *any other* means an aspirant
takes up in order to attain (the knowledge of)  Brahman.

In the PrashnopaniShad 1.15 there is a reference to 'brahmacharyam' to be
followed by upAsaka-s, followers of the 'prajApati vratam'.  Here Shankara
writes for this word:  ‌ऋतौ  भार्यागमनम् ... ऋतौ अन्यत्र मैथुन-असमाचरणम् .
Having recourse to the wife during the time fit for it.

On one occasion the earlier Sringeri Acharya Jagadguru Sri Abhinava
Vidyatirtha swaminaH said, quoting a sentence: प्रथमः पुत्रः धर्मजः, अन्ये
तु कामजाः प्रोक्ताः [the first son is verily born of dharma; the rest are
only products of lust] and went on to say: if a householder follows this
and refrains from intercourse, even he is a brahmachari.]

Regards,
subrahmanian.v
_______________________________________________
Archives: http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/
http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.culture.religion.advaita

To unsubscribe or change your options:
http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l

For assistance, contact:
listmaster at advaita-vedanta.org