[Advaita-l] Pitru Rina and progeny

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

This issue is not at all irrelevant to this group, because it pertains to
naishThika brahmacarya and brahmacaryASramAd eva saMnyAsa.

1. If a couple have a biological inability to conceive, the SAstra provides
for various options, from adoption to niyoga, depending on deSa and kAla.

2. If only daughters are born, that is not a problem either. The maternal
lineage is also given pitRtarpaNa, so if the daughters go on to have sons,
the pitR RNa is still met that way. In addition, there is a special
provision given in the dharmaSAstra texts, whereby the father of a bride
gets an assurance from the prospective groom that the grandson would now
belong to the maternal grandfather's gotra and would function as a son
instead of a grandson, for all ritual karma. Such a grandson, formally
agreed upon at the time of vivAha itself, is called a putrika. This
practice is still being followed when necessary.

3. If someone has reason(s) to avoid getting married, there are allowances
for that possibility too. The AcAra dictates that a qualified guru should
give his blessing to this alternative. This is because the validity of the
reasons cited by that person has to be examined and verified by a competent
authority.

4. Not being able to fend for oneself, in times of war etc etc would all be
covered under the category of Apaddharma. Again, the advice of a well
qualified guru should be taken, because each situation will be different
and there can be no one general solution to a host of specific problems.

Best regards,
Vidyasankar



On Jun 20, 2017 5:45 PM, "Aditya Kumar via Advaita-l" <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

Namaste All,
Please delete this post if you feel it is irrelevant to this group.
I understand that to be free from Pitru rina, one should procreate and
bring forth progeny. For those that do not follow this rule, the doors of
the upper worlds are closed, as per Shastras. The only exception to this
rule is to those who take up sanyasa right after brahmacharya. Because
sanyasins are considered as dead. But there seems to be a lot of
exceptions. I request advice from learned members :
1) What if parents cannot conceive? Is surrogacy allowed in Vedas?2) What
if parents have only female child?3) What if a man decides to spend his
lifetime observing strict rules of brahmacharya (Like Bhishma)? Although, I
don't think people generally would have a compelling reason like Bhishma to
choose the Brahmacharya mode of life. 4) What if a person finds a lot of
fault in Grihasta mode OR if a man cannot fend for himself save his
dependants OR testing times like war torn nation or great misfortune?
Thanks
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