[Advaita-l] Role of Grihasta guru in Shankara matha sambradayam.

[jaldhar at braincells.com]

On Fri, 19 Mar 2021, Aravind M via Advaita-l wrote:

> Hi all,
> 1.Can a grihasta who has acquired a certain amount of sadhana chatustayam
> be an acharya and guide disciples in the path of advaitha..

Even a sannyasi guru who has attained brahmanishtaa himself cannot "give" 
moksha.  It has to be realized by oneself.  But the sannyasi atleast has 
experience and the grhastha does not.  Nevertheless insofar as Advaita 
Vedanta is also a collection of facts, a grhastha can definitely teach that.

> 2.should a spiritual guru definitely be a jeevan muktha??

The practical problem is how can you tell?  There is no specific test or 
certificate that can definitely prove jivanmukti.  We can look at a 
persons conduct though and if they exhibit the characteristics oa a 
jivanmukta it is a reasonable conclusion to assume they are.  This was 
brought out in the article "The Jagadguru's spiritual guidance to a 
Frenchman" that was posted the other day.  The Jagadgurus don't literally 
tell the whole world what to do but they demonstrate an example the whole 
world can learn from.


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