Re "Why did Swa. Brahmananda abandon this realization-practice to engage in a role-playing position as a kingly Shankaracharya. This is never addressed by the biographies but is glossed over with pious platitudes.":
Me: Many Homeless people accept help to live inside when they reach the age where it is too hard to continue to camp on public land which is what Guru Dev was doing when they asked him. I never heard about any trickery. He accepted once, then reneged and ran away for a while. Then they convinced him to come live inside. Quite a posh homeless shelter. It was probably hard for an old guy to make such a big change. But the 3 hots and a cot lifestyle has its appeal for a man of a certain age. Even if it comes with people waving camphor and incense in your face occasionally. Reading his words about religion reminds me of other fundamentalist religious people who like to think and talk about God all the time. I gotta figure it was because of a lack of commitment to mastering the guitar. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <s3raphita@...> wrote : Re "Why did Swa. Brahmananda abandon this realization-practice to engage in a role-playing position as a kingly Shankaracharya. This is never addressed by the biographies but is glossed over with pious platitudes.": Didn't MMY say that Guru Dev was tricked into accepting the position? Or am I imagining that I heard that story? If so, I must be going senile. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <mjackson74@...> wrote : that is a damn good question - I appreciate you posting this. I am gonna get this book and see what it does have to say, esp. now with this in mind. From: "emptybill@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, July 3, 2015 12:02 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Roots of TM Anyone read this stuff? These types of biographies contain lots of valuable information. However, all of them tend to be hagiographies written by Western psychophantic householders. Consequently none of them reflect the ACTUAL view of sannyasa held by someone like swami Brahmananda Saraswati. He was not just a sannyasin, but rather a Danda-Sannyasin, which is a specific category of stict renunciation. Danda-Sannyasins have no concern with the world at all. Rather, they take care of simple bodily needs and use their remaining life moments to engage in nididhyasana (contemplation). This means examination of the apparent difference between the Awareness-Self and experience itself. Between Self and Other. Between Brahman and appearances. It also means contemplating the Upanishad declarations that Brahman is reality itself (satyam), Awareness itself (jnanam), limitlessness itself (anantam) and that this apparent world is that very Brahman itself. Why did Swa. Brahmananda abandon this realization-practice to engage in a role-playing position as a kingly Shankaracharya. This is never addressed by the biographies but is glossed over with pious platitudes. PS: Don't bother replying with "He loved us so much he wanted to save us from ourselves" christian theologizing B.S. Also leave off the "He was a great bodhisattva" Buddhist B.S. These types of answers will only demonstrate lack of understanding the question.
