Life of sanyasi

[Guest guest]

Om Tat Sat

Namaste, I am currently reading Swami Dayananda's commentary on Gita

and I was just wondering about the life of a sanyasi. I quote below

from his commentary

 

"The sanyasi does not grow his or her own food or work to earn money

to buy it. Instead he or she lives on alms or bhiksha, which is not

the same as begging. To live on bhiksha means one lives on whatever

comes along without any planning or scheming about how to acquire the

food. Whatever chance brings is food enough for the sanyasi ...."

 

I am not sure how exactly this works in today's environment. I am sure

there are still many sanyasis in Rishikesh or other Shankar muths. How

exactly do they go about meeting their daily food requirements. Any

sanyasi on this list (Br Vinaya ??) or anybody knows about this

lifestyle.

 

regards,

Om Tat Sat

[Guest guest]

advaitin, "mahadevadvaita" <mahadevadvaita

wrote:

>

> Om Tat Sat

> Namaste, I am currently reading Swami Dayananda's commentary on Gita

> and I was just wondering about the life of a sanyasi. I quote below

> from his commentary

 

Dear Mahadevadvaita,

 

Earlier there was a system called madhukari. Madhukari is nothing but

food collected by a Monk from many houses. Madhukari is said to be very

pure food in the scriptures and it was a must for a sanyasin. In days

of yore generally sanyasins were parivrajakas means they were wandering

alone during the whole year excluding rainy season which is called

chaturmasya. In this period they used to live under a shelter say a

temple of any such place and they used to undertake preacing work as it

was inconvenient to travel due to adverse conditions. A true sanyasi

does not plan or pocess anything. He is compltely under the refuge of

the lord. In certin traditions a sanyasin is not allowed even to stay

more than 3 days at a same place.

 

Lord Buddha was the foremost of incarnations to organise the monks and

he started monastarites where monks used live together in a community.

But they used to beg their food. But this also underwent change in the

passage of time. Swami Vivekananda took this model of orgainsing monks

from lord buddha and started an institution where monks were allowed to

live and due to practical inconveniences begging was stopped. The

financial neccesities are provided by generous househoders. Sri

Shankaracharya also establised maths but there the sanyasins number

were very less. Later many people took this kind of organisation like

Chinmaya Mission, Arsha Vidya Gurukulam etc.

 

A sanyasins true refuge should be the lotus feet of Hari. If one has

true devotion to him he will give mukti itself what to speak of bhukti

( day to day necessities)

 

JAI JAI RAGHUVEER SAMARTHA

 

Yours in the lord,

 

Br. Vinayaka

[Guest guest]

ref number 30528

 

Sri Vinayaka states :

 

(Earlier there was a system called madhukari. Madhukari is nothing

but food collected by a Monk from many houses. Madhukari is said to

be very pure food in the scriptures and it was a must for a

sanyasin. )

 

Yes! Madhukar in Smskritam means - a bee . And Madhukari 'Biksha'

means just like a bee goes from flower to flower gathering honey

(madhu), simliary a sanyasin goes from door to door begging for alms

saying famous 'Kanakadhara stavam and stotra' 'Bhavati Bikshaam

Dehi' ?( give me alms) - there are reasons for this .... first, the

sanyasin accepts whatever 'food' is offered to him and secondly ,

there is no 'attachment' either to the 'food' or the giver of

the 'food' . It is during one of those Madhukari Diksha episodes that

our beloved Adi Shankara Bhagvadapada composed the

famous 'Kanakadhara' stotram. The lady of the house was too poor and

had nothing to offer to Sri Adi Shankara and she offered him the

only 'Amalaka' fruit she had with bhaya-bhakti. Adi Shankara was so

pleased with this lady's act of sacrifice , he composed spontaneouly

the famous 'kanakadhara stavam and stotra' praying to Mother Goddess

Sri Lakshmi to shower wealth on that lady. Hearing this beautiful

composition Goddess Lakshmi was pleased showered on the lady with

instant rain of golden Amla fruits.

 

Adi Shankara sings in this verse of the Kanakadhara stotra

 

Mugha muhurvidadhati vadane murareh |

Prematrapa prani hitani gata gatani ||

Maladrusor*madhu Kari*va mahotpaleya |

Samesriyam disatusagara sambha vayah ||

 

 

May the beautiful and continuous glances of the daughter of the ocean

confer on me wealth. Her glances which are caused by her feelings of

love and shyness repeatedly go towards and come back from the face of

the enemy of Mura even as the "she-bee" does towards the blue lily.

 

(read the entire stotra in www,kamakoti.org)

 

In line three , there is reference to 'madhukari- the she bee ! This

is the poetic genius of Shankara bhagvadapada! Yes ! Lakshmi

kataksham is all that is need for both material and spiritual wealth!

what a beautiful play on Words by our POET-SAINT-PHILOSOPHER Sri Adi

shankara.

 

Sri Vinayaka writes :

 

( In certin traditions a sanyasin is not allowed even to stay

more than 3 days at a same place. )

 

This is true also because Sanyasis do not want to get attached to a

particular place . Sri Ramakrishna's guru Totapuri made an exception

to this rule when he stayed in Dakshineshwer temple for more than

stipulated period of time . Totapuri wanted to experience the bliss

of devotional worship of Mother Kali at the temple.

 

LOVE AND BLESSINGS

 

thank you Vinayakaji - your posts are full of devotion.