Householder

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

sadananda wrote:

>I think Vidya has answered to the point regarding the sanyaasa.  We had
>these discussions in the past and Jaldhar H. Vyas insists on the external
>sanyaasa as well. Apparently he strongly believes in it. So be it.  Since
>he believes in it,  he can not get liberation without taking sanyaasa.  If
>you think you can gain liberation without taking external sanyasa you can.
>This is called self-fulfilling prophesy.

Lord kR^ishhNa, the supreme Ishvara himself has said:

anAshritaH karmaphalaM kAryaM karmaH karoti yaH |
sa sannyAsI cha yogI cha niragnirna chAkriyaH ||
                         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

End of the story. External sannyAsa is not absolutely essential, but is useful
in most cases. shrI sha.nkara has also made this point pretty clear in the
bhagavatdgItA. I remember Giri posting it once. In "The Jagatguru replies",
H.H. abhivanava vidyAtIrtha mahAsvAmigaL has also clarified the issue by
explaining householders _can_ be GYAni-s, eg, janaka, shuka, vyAsa etc. But he
adds that for most people external sannyAsa proves quite useful. If a person
is advanced enough being in America or thiruvannamalai won't matter, but for
the vast majority like me it does matter. sannyAsa is some what similar.

Anyway, just remember that Jaldhar does not consider shrI sha.nkara the "pope"
and has expounded views on sannyAsa, brahmaloka etc etc etc which no advaitin
has ever expounded. This is for Nandakumar who may not have been around when
these things were discussed. So don't be confused by Jaldhar's statements.
According to advaita as expounded by Ishvara, shrI sha.nkara, shrI vidyAraNya
and all the sha.nkarAchArya-s in recent times, external sannyAsa is _NOT_
essential, albeit useful in most cases.

Anyway, welcome back Sadananda.

Ramakrishnan.