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Re: sanyAsa/gruhastAsrama

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xsrinath • January 20, 2002 


Smt. Raji Sridhar:

This was explained very well by asmad AchAryan Sri
Rangapriya mahAdeSikan during one of HH's discourses
on mahAbharata.  All the Asramas spring from the
gruhastAsrama alone; without it there would be no
life nor any progeny.  It is gruhastAsrama alone
which supports children and brahmacharis, wives,
mothers and daughters alike.  It is the very basis
for all of sanAtana dharma.  Whether one takes up
sanyAsAsrama by passing through gruhastAsrama first,
or directly enters sanyAsAsrama - the fact remains
that in both cases the sanyAsi's origin itself is
attributable to gruhastAsrama.

Further, a gruhasta has certain special privileges
that sanyAsis don't - such as: a sanyAsi must only
seek bhikshai from a gruhasta, for example.  Great
scholars from gruhastAsrama (such as swAmi deSikan
and uttamoor swAmi) have demonstrated that one can
perform kainkaryam towards human beings of all other
Asramas, without entering sanyAsa.  In this respect,
a sanyAsi faces numerous restrictions which could
even inhibit their ability for bhAgavata kainkaryam.
Finally, sanyAsaSrama is possible only because of
grushastAsrama, since a sanyAsi is forbidden from
pursuing livelihood and must depend upon a gruhasta's
philantrophy for sustanence of matham/shishyas etc.

Thus, SriRangapriya swAmi said, that grushastAsrama
is proclaimed in the itihAsas as the "supreme among
all Asramas", and the source/origin of life itself.

adiyEn rangapriya daasan,
-Srinath C.

======================================
RAJI SRIDHAR  wrote:

>I have heard from my elders that Grihasthashram is
>greater than Sanyashramam.  I don't know why? Can
>someone tell me more about this.
-- 




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