[Advaita-l] Praishoccarana

[jaldhar at braincells.com]

On Mon, 11 Jan 2021, Olga Nowicka via Advaita-l wrote:

>
> what is the praishoccarana in the context of the samnyasa-diksha?
>

This would be slightly different for different sampradayas of sannyasis 
but according to dharmasindhu which reflects the Smarta/Dashanami view[1]
it is as follows:

the aspirant repeats the vow to renounce all three times with the three 
mahavyahrtis, bhuh, bhuvah, and svah.  Then he plucks out his shikha[2], 
takes off his yajnopavita and breaks it and offers it into water[3].  He 
presents himself to the dikshaguru who gives him the danda and patra and 
gives him the upadesha of one of the four mahavakyas depening on which 
"name" he belongs to.[4]



[1] Though I understand more specialized dharmashastras are used in 
practice.

[2] Or atleast some hairs and the rest is shaved.  I imagine it would be 
very painful to do the whole thing.

[3] i.e. into a tirth like the Ganga at Haridwar or Damodara kunda at 
Junaghadh.

[4]There is a work called mathanushasana which associates each of the 
four mathas founded by Shankaracharya with four vedas, four mahavakyas, 
certain dashanami names (saraswati, puri, bharati etc.) and other 
relationships.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>