Adi Shankara is always described as Parivrajaka Acharya, or a Teacher who moves from place to place. It is interesting to examine why our ancestors created such a title for any one.
The position of a travelling teacher would be appropriate only in a context where more or less stationery teachers work in particular localities. Any one with a slight acquaintance with the principle behind the arrangement of four Ashramas would easily see that the Vanaprasthas and the Sannyasins functioned respectively as the stationary and itinerant teachers. Both these types of teachers gave their service free, and thus contributed in a large measure to the spread of learning and culture in ancient days. The Sannyasins, specially, by moving from place to place, helped to coordinate traditions in the remotest corners of the country. Let us frankly admit that this is a task which the powerful governments of the present day, with all the facilities they command for quick travel and communication, find it hard to achieve.
We know what happens when people ask for greater conveniences for educating their children. Our ministers plead that there are no funds. What is the way out? If children cannot pay, we must try to raise up teachers who can give their service for the sheer love of it. We must, in other words, organize our society in such a way that a certain number of competent men would naturally "retire" or "renounce" and become available as free teachers. In olden days it was considered an item of religious discipline to give up eshana-traya: desire for sex, wealth and subtle pleasures in this world or the next. Could not modern men (and women) develop sufficient fervor to take up similar vows and cover a portion of the educational field?
Our tragedy is that our own leaders have ridiculed and misrepresented this ideal of renunciation to such an extent that no self-respecting young man or woman would normally think of adopting such a course and leading a dedicated life. The same leaders internally chafe when they see the shameful spectacle of people very much advanced in life, going about with their progressively advancing interest in their grandchildren, or their money-making or their craving for social or political importance, engaged in unseemly squabbles and blocking the paths of younger citizens! Retire, renounce and serve: this would be beautiful motto for ennobling the lives of such people and making society better. But our leaders would not tell that. They are mortally afraid of the word "renunciation". If they have to use it, they neutralise it with many qualifying adjuncts till its significance is all lost! Mental renunciation is enough, they say; and they point out to us the example of Mahatma Gandhi! As if mental renunciation is quite easy, and the example of Mahatma Gandhi mush easier!
As against this they also show the number of formally renounced people who have not been able to shed their selfishness, or who have taken the external symbols of renunciation for earning their livelihood. This is patently unfair. When two mango trees are to be compared, it is no use taking the best fruit of one and the worm-eaten fruit of the other for comparison. Take the best of both. As against a Gandhi, take a Dayananda, or a Vivekananda, or a Ramana Maharshi or a Kamakoti Pitham Swami.
Look at the other wonderful problems of the present day. There is Communism,proposting to work for the welfare of the community; it is against private property and religion. There is also fear due to the rapid increase in the population of the world. People advocate all sorts of remedies to remove these evils. Many honest people however believe that the remedies suggested really help the spread of greater vices instead of virtues. It does not require very great insight to realise that the ideal of the Sannyasin can be made to play a great part in facing some of these problems in a manner consistent with virtue, an inner sense of moral victory and the best traditions of Indian culture. The ideal of the Sannyasins is to sublimate sex, to give up private property in letter and in spirit and, lastly, to dedicate his life for realizing God and serving Him in all creatures. He who is called Sannyasins from the standpoint of the Ashramas - be it remembered - is to be termed "traveling teachers" from the educational standpoint.
[Subandhu]
The position of a travelling teacher would be appropriate only in a context where more or less stationery teachers work in particular localities. Any one with a slight acquaintance with the principle behind the arrangement of four Ashramas would easily see that the Vanaprasthas and the Sannyasins functioned respectively as the stationary and itinerant teachers. Both these types of teachers gave their service free, and thus contributed in a large measure to the spread of learning and culture in ancient days. The Sannyasins, specially, by moving from place to place, helped to coordinate traditions in the remotest corners of the country. Let us frankly admit that this is a task which the powerful governments of the present day, with all the facilities they command for quick travel and communication, find it hard to achieve.
We know what happens when people ask for greater conveniences for educating their children. Our ministers plead that there are no funds. What is the way out? If children cannot pay, we must try to raise up teachers who can give their service for the sheer love of it. We must, in other words, organize our society in such a way that a certain number of competent men would naturally "retire" or "renounce" and become available as free teachers. In olden days it was considered an item of religious discipline to give up eshana-traya: desire for sex, wealth and subtle pleasures in this world or the next. Could not modern men (and women) develop sufficient fervor to take up similar vows and cover a portion of the educational field?
Our tragedy is that our own leaders have ridiculed and misrepresented this ideal of renunciation to such an extent that no self-respecting young man or woman would normally think of adopting such a course and leading a dedicated life. The same leaders internally chafe when they see the shameful spectacle of people very much advanced in life, going about with their progressively advancing interest in their grandchildren, or their money-making or their craving for social or political importance, engaged in unseemly squabbles and blocking the paths of younger citizens! Retire, renounce and serve: this would be beautiful motto for ennobling the lives of such people and making society better. But our leaders would not tell that. They are mortally afraid of the word "renunciation". If they have to use it, they neutralise it with many qualifying adjuncts till its significance is all lost! Mental renunciation is enough, they say; and they point out to us the example of Mahatma Gandhi! As if mental renunciation is quite easy, and the example of Mahatma Gandhi mush easier!
As against this they also show the number of formally renounced people who have not been able to shed their selfishness, or who have taken the external symbols of renunciation for earning their livelihood. This is patently unfair. When two mango trees are to be compared, it is no use taking the best fruit of one and the worm-eaten fruit of the other for comparison. Take the best of both. As against a Gandhi, take a Dayananda, or a Vivekananda, or a Ramana Maharshi or a Kamakoti Pitham Swami.
Look at the other wonderful problems of the present day. There is Communism,proposting to work for the welfare of the community; it is against private property and religion. There is also fear due to the rapid increase in the population of the world. People advocate all sorts of remedies to remove these evils. Many honest people however believe that the remedies suggested really help the spread of greater vices instead of virtues. It does not require very great insight to realise that the ideal of the Sannyasin can be made to play a great part in facing some of these problems in a manner consistent with virtue, an inner sense of moral victory and the best traditions of Indian culture. The ideal of the Sannyasins is to sublimate sex, to give up private property in letter and in spirit and, lastly, to dedicate his life for realizing God and serving Him in all creatures. He who is called Sannyasins from the standpoint of the Ashramas - be it remembered - is to be termed "traveling teachers" from the educational standpoint.
[Subandhu]
