Order of sanyasis

[Guest guest]

Respected Swamis:

 

A distinquisedspeaker recently gave a lecture in which he said that all

sanyasis are grouped in 10 groups. The higest group is called parama hamsa

and sanyasis of all other groups have to pay obeisance to the sanyasis in

the parama hamsa group. Is this correct?

 

To what order do sanyasis in the Sri Vaishna tradition belong?

 

Adiyen

 

D Balasundaram Ramanuja dasan

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[Guest guest]

Bala Sundaram writes:

> Respected Swamis:

>

> A distinquisedspeaker recently gave a lecture in which he said that all

> sanyasis are grouped in 10 groups. The higest group is called parama hamsa

> and sanyasis of all other groups have to pay obeisance to the sanyasis in

> the parama hamsa group. Is this correct?

 

Dear Sri Balasundaram,

 

There are two different issues here. One is the 10-fold grouping, to

which the Sri Vaishnava sannyAsis do not belong, and the 'grading' of

sannyAsis, which is universally accepted, with 'paramahamsa' being the

highest. The speaker you mention must have only the Advaita tradition

and its rules in mind.

 

The sannyAsis of the Advaita tradition are classified into 10 groups.

This is known as the dASanAmi tradition, said to be organized by

Sri Sankaracharya himself. You may wish to see the following Web page

for more info:

 

http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/avhp/ad-today.html

 

The 10 groups are bhAratI, sarasvatI, sAgara, tIrtha, purI, ASrama, giri,

parvata, araNya and vana, generally referring to a spot conducive to meditation,

such as a river, mountain, forest, etc. Traditional Advaita sannyasis as

a rule belong to one of these 10 groups and bear the group's name at the

end of their own. For example, the the previous maThAdhipati of the Sringeri

maTha bore the title SrI abhinava vidyA tIrtha.

 

Interestingly, for historical reasons, mAdhva sannyAsis nominally belong to

this classification as well. Sri Madhvacharya's actual name as a sannyAsi was

SrI Ananda tIrtha.

 

Neo-Advaita Vedantins such as the Ramakrishna Order, Chinmaya

Mission, etc., have their own initiation procedures and do not

belong to these groups, though they are influenced by them.

 

All of these sannyAsis abandon the sacred thread, topknot, and

consequently the gAyatrI mantra as part of their initiation rite.

 

Sri Vaishnava sannyAsis do not belong to the dASanAmi tradition

and in many cases have different rules. For example, our sannyAsis

do not abandon the sacred thread or topknot and continue to perform

trikAla-sandhyAvandanam and gAyatrI japa. There are a wide variety

of texts which govern the life of a sannyAsi, ranging from ancient

Upanishads, more recent Upanishads, dharma-sUtras, smRtis, and Puranas.

Each tradition of sannyAsis accepts a different subset of these texts as

being authoritative and interprets certain passages differently. Some

of the key ritual differences are outlined by Sri Yadava Prakasa, a

contemporary of Sri Ramanuja, in the 'yati-dharma-samuccaya', said to be

written at the acharya's command, and in two vAdas of Sri Desika's 'SatadUSaNi'.

 

(The yati-dharma-samuccaya has been translated into English, and is

easily available. Please see

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0791422844/srivaishnahomepa/102-9296102-2\

948920

for more info).

 

For all practical purposes, all Sri Vaishnava sannyAsis bear the title

'paramahamsa', and most senior, traditional Advaita sannyAsis also do so.

The rule regarding other groups paying obeisance to the paramahamsas applies

more to the Advaita tradition.

 

Mani