What is sannyasa?

[Guest guest]

PAMHO

 

Please could someone explain what the rules of sannyasa are? Can a sannyasi after becoming one leave the sannyasa ashrama for any reason? How come Lord Chaitanya recommended that in Kali Yuga no one should take sannyasa and yet there are so many Gaudiya Viashnava Gurus who have accepted the order of sannyasa? What is the qualification to accept sannyasa and what kind of person is fit for it?

 

Any light upon this subject would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

Elena.

[Guruvani]

 

PAMHO

 

Please could someone explain what the rules of sannyasa are? Can a sannyasi after becoming one leave the sannyasa ashrama for any reason? How come Lord Chaitanya recommended that in Kali Yuga no one should take sannyasa and yet there are so many Gaudiya Viashnava Gurus who have accepted the order of sannyasa? What is the qualification to accept sannyasa and what kind of person is fit for it?

 

Any light upon this subject would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

Elena.

 

try this link.

you should find some useful information there.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanyasa

[theist]

 

PAMHO

 

Please could someone explain what the rules of sannyasa are? Can a sannyasi after becoming one leave the sannyasa ashrama for any reason? How come Lord Chaitanya recommended that in Kali Yuga no one should take sannyasa and yet there are so many Gaudiya Viashnava Gurus who have accepted the order of sannyasa? What is the qualification to accept sannyasa and what kind of person is fit for it?

 

Any light upon this subject would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

Elena.

 

Sorry I can't help you with the particulars of the formal order. I did notice this however in the Bhagavad-gita.

 

TRANSLATION 3.4

Not by merely abstaining from work can one achieve freedom from reaction, nor by renunciation alone can one attain perfection.

 

PURPORT

The renounced order of life can be accepted when one has been purified by the discharge of the prescribed form of duties which are laid down just to purify the hearts of materialistic men. Without purification, one cannot attain success by abruptly adopting the fourth order of life (sannyäsa). According to the empirical philosophers, simply by adopting sannyäsa, or retiring from fruitive activities, one at once becomes as good as Näräyana. But Lord Krsna does not approve this principle. Without purification of heart, sannyäsa is simply a disturbance to the social order. On the other hand, if someone takes to the transcendental service of the Lord, even without discharging his prescribed duties, whatever he may be able to advance in the cause is accepted by the Lord (buddhi-yoga). Sv-alpam apy asya dharmasya träyate mahato bhayät. Even a slight performance of such a principle enables one to overcome great difficulties.

[Guest guest]

Sannyasa is part of many Hindu traditions, not just Gaudiya Vaisnavism. Each tradition has different criteria for it. Lord Chaitanya was from a tradition that is one tradition out of the four main branches of Hinduism.

 

One school in the Shaivite tradition that I am aware of has very specific rules for who may take sannyasa vows and who may not. And it doesn't happen all at once but over a long period of time and the person is carefully monitored at all of the stages of the game.

 

First, an astrologer checks the astrological chart of the aspirant. Apparently there are some planets in certain houses that are better for renunciation than others. If they do not have the right planets for renunciation in the right houses then sannyasa is not advised for them.

 

Secondly, only people of a certain age are considered. Third, they have to undergo a very long apprenticeship. Four, they live in a single gender monastery. Five, the monastery severely limits who may enter the property.

Six, the aspirants pass through several different stages.

 

First they may only visit and volunteer on a "work study" program, where they are observed by the monastics. Then after having been a "task-forcer" [volunteer] they decide if they would really like to be a monastic or live outside of a monastery better and the monastics have a better idea who the person is also.

 

Next if they do well as a "task forcer" then they might be invited to live at the monastery. But before this they have to write out their entire life story and be interviewed by the senior monks.

 

The senior monks do not invite anyone to live at the monastery who has had a unhappy childhood or a person with alot of "issues" to resolve. They feel that men who have been raised with beatings and violence, arguments and rancor have way too many unresolved issues that would probably later surface as the tapas got heavier and tear apart the monastic community. They purposely only choose very peaceful and well-adjusted, mature men.

 

Next there are vows made to commit for 6 months, one year, two years, and so on. One moves from a sadhaka to a tapasvin to an ashvin and so on. Then after ten years one can petition to be considered to enter into sannyasa.

 

All of this time the person has been pretty much raised by the monastics. They have worked closely with each other and know each other very well. So then even when they receive the go ahead to proceed to sannyasa level then there are certain numbers of years in which a person vows that they can uphold the sannyasa vows, then the vows are renewed.

 

This method has resulted in zero falldowns since 1959 when the order was first founded. The men rarely go out into the world. If they do it is only for a very brief period of time and with a brother monastic.

 

They are not allowed to own anything at all or have private bank accounts. They are not allowed to have a house, they sleep in a bare one room hut in the forest with no furnishings except for an altar area and a bed platform. They are not allowed to have a soft bed, they sleep on a hard platform.

 

Their lives are very very strictly regulated. The public is very carefully screened who may come onto the monastery grounds if at all. Every four days they are "off" i.e. no outsiders may come onto the property and all monks regardless of high status must do some sort of menial work at the monastery. They rotate what the work is: be it gardening, cooking, Deity worship, carpentry, sewing, computer, printing books, finances, etc.

 

They have very very strict hours for meditating. They grow all of their own food and make all of their own robes. Thus opportunities for hanky-panky that lead to fall-downs are reduced to nil, that is why there have been zero falldowns. Also because all must do hard labor and the labor is rotated, there is little chance to develop the mentality of a prima donna.

 

They do not preach that the opposite sex is contaminating and that it is fallen to be married. They consider that most people will be married. Also they do not consider that the monastery is a refuge for people who have problems. People who have problems are counselled to live on the outside.

They feel that the monastery is only for a very rare select few and they have gatekeeping process upon gatekeeping process to keep it that way.

 

Thus if you have really super strict criteria then it is possible to have a few people who are able to fulfill the vows of this type of sannyasa, or so it would seem what with the zero falldowns track record since 1959.

[Guest guest]

Dear Guruvani, Theist and Guest, my thanks to you all for replying to my question.

 

The last post was particularly detailed and interesting. It is very exemplary that the Shaivite monks have a zero fall down rate and I admire it greatly. I supppose it must be a life of solitary (as in away from the general mass of people) bhajana to Lord Shiva, rather than preaching.

 

Please could someone inform me about Vaisnava sannyasa and its details. I understand that Srila Prabhupada took sannyasa because he wanted to preach, but once one accepts sannyasa can one go back to being a grahasta or bhramachari again?

 

Thanks, Elena.

[Guest guest]

Is there something wrong with an institution's implementation of sannyasa when a grhastha or vanaprastha will usually increase his standard of living by taking sannyasa?

[Guruvani]

 

Dear Guruvani, Theist and Guest, my thanks to you all for replying to my question.

 

The last post was particularly detailed and interesting. It is very exemplary that the Shaivite monks have a zero fall down rate and I admire it greatly. I supppose it must be a life of solitary (as in away from the general mass of people) bhajana to Lord Shiva, rather than preaching.

 

Please could someone inform me about Vaisnava sannyasa and its details. I understand that Srila Prabhupada took sannyasa because he wanted to preach, but once one accepts sannyasa can one go back to being a grahasta or bhramachari again?

 

Thanks, Elena.

 

A man who has taken sannyasa can fall down from that order of life and again return to married life.

In ISKCON there are numerous examples of that.

It is however a very disgraceful and shameful situation for man to be in.

 

It's not criminal to fall down from sannyasa and go back to married life.

There are no sannyasa police that will arrest him and put him in jail.

 

Sannyasa is an order of life in the Varnashram social structure.

It is material designation and in this age an especially artificial status, as most all the sannyasis of the Krishna consciounsness movement live pampered lives of preferential treatment.

 

Yes, men can and do fall down from the sannyasa order of life.

Then, some of them are again awarded sannyasa again later.

Unless one is trying to become a big preacher, there is no need to take sannyasa.

[Guest guest]

From what I understand, one Shaivite traditional teacher has made the distinction of there being two types of sannyasa in Hinduism: one previously described in which one takes formal vows at a young age or at the end of one's life and is similar to the Vaisnava concept of the bhajananandi.

 

The other is a more natural type of sannyasa that every person will undergo if they live out a certain number of years, i.e. from age birth to 24 brahma charya, age 24-48 grhastha, age 48-72 vanaprastha and age 72 sannyasa.

This is called the four ashrams of human life. The Shaivite traditional teacher has said that these two types of sannyasa--vrata versus natural--should not be confused one with the other.

 

In the Gaudiya tradition from what I understand Srila Prabhupada's wife and children left him and all of his businesses failed. So then some of his friends told him to come and stay at the Matha [a place for pilgrims located at holy dhamas] and why not take sannyasa? This happened to him at age 59, so he was younger than the "natural sannyasa" age of 72.

 

From what I understand Srila Prabhupada was very anxious to share Krsna Consciousness with the world and I believe there is a letter of his in which he shares with a godbrother that he was prepared to feed the Western boys and girls meat, eggs, and wine at the ashrams he would set up for them because he had firm faith in the efficacy of the Holy Names as purifying.

 

So I believe that in this spirit--I may be wrong--he awarded the sannyasa title to young men in their twenties for the purposes of preaching. Later when the first one "fell down" the boys were shocked. Today we know with longitudinal MRI brain scan studies that human beings are adolescents until age 26. Srila Prabhupada then explained to what essentially were mostly little boys that, "You are not really sannyasis and all of you will fall--but oh what a glorious falldown it will be."

 

I am sorry I could be mistaken so if that is wrong I hope that someone will correct me so I am not giving you incorrect information. I feel that the sincere boys who did this, they were raised as Christians and in the Bible Jesus asks his disciples to give up everything and follow me. Srila Prabhu[ada went to the Scottish Churches College so he would have known this aspect of Christianity and how it would meld seamlessly with Gaudiya Vaisnavism, particularly the branch which admires Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who took sannyasa at a young age also, age 24 if I am not mistaken.

 

So for me personally, I admire these boys who gave up everything not knowing that to do so is not really a part of traditional Hindu culture. I admire them for following the Sunday School spirit of Christianity to the tee, especially if they did it sincerely and innocently like a child.

 

I read that in India also some boys secretly wish to run away from home and become sannyasis as young as age eight and they often do so. In Tibet and Southeast Asia we see many young boys are living monastic lives and even a famous play was written about "Anna and the King", about a monarch who lived his first 35 years as a celibate monastic and then when he became the king at age 35 had his first contact with the opposite sex when he married.

 

I hope this answers your question and if I have said anything incorrect or not factual then I hope someone will provide the right information. One last thing that in the book Srila Prabhupada Siksamrta he says that if any of his students are strictly following everything then they are a real sannyasi, even married couples, single ladies and so on. Sannyasa means to do everything for Krsna, paraphrased. So that is a third and secret esoteric meaning.