[Advaita-l] Sringeri Jagatguru announces His Successor

[Balasubramanian Ramakrishnan]

Thanks for this and the following reply.

I think it would be fruitful to look at the video in the front page of
http://www.sringeri.net/

I think it would be useful for the "illiterate modernists" to listen
carefully, especially to the parts between minutes 16:00 and 22:00. There
was also some speculation on the qualifications of a successor designate.
The basic qualification is I think a solid grounding in the
sAdhanAcatuShTayam. Some people had mentioned being versed in the vedas.
Sri Bharati Tirtha had undergone yajurveda adhyayanam. But Sri Vidyatirtha
took up sannyaasa when he was 14 or so and has mentioned in one of his
talks that he had learned just a few suuktams before taking up sannyaasa. A
a matter of fact, he has mentioned that when he was taught the shankara
bhAshyams, he realized that they corresponded to what he had already
realized. So, I think the peethaadipatis make a decision which they think
is optimal and we don't have access to their thought process.

Rama

On Fri, Jan 9, 2015 at 5:56 PM, Jaldhar H. Vyas via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> On Tue, 6 Jan 2015, D.V.N.Sarma డి.వి.ఎన్.శర్మ via Advaita-l wrote:
>
>  In order that the peethadhipathis may understand, relate  and communicate
>> with the modern society, I think they should have some grounding in modern
>> science and technology. If not, they will be more and more alienated from
>> the society and loose their relevance.
>>
>
> There appears to be a typo in your post let me fix it for you.
>
>  In order that the illiterate modernists  may understand, relate and
>> communicate with dharmic society, I think they should have some grounding
>> in sanskrit and shastras. If not, they will be more and more alienated from
>> the society and loose their relevance.
>>
>
> Much better right? :-)
>
>  Already their impact on the society at large is infinitesimal. The only
>> people who look to them is a very small fraction of the society (the
>> priestly class)
>>
>
> Assuming that this is true (and its not by a long shot) what makes you
> think that "a grounding in science and technology" would make any
> difference?  If you had any grounding in science yourself you would know
> about the large amount of sociological research being done into the decline
> and rise of various religions.  I'm not going to do your homework for you;
> look into it yourself and see how much e.g. spouting some gibberish about
> quantum physics will help.  And if let's say he opens a twitter account it
> will be in the papers for one week and then back to usual.  Real social
> changes take effort by large groups of people.  Have you done your part?
> Or are you just another one of those armchair generals?
>