Shankara's Words

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THE TEACHER AND THE DISCIPLE

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* A Real teacher is he who is well-versed in the Vedas, sinless, unsmitten

by desire and the best among the knowers of Brahman, who has withdrawn

himself into Brahman, is calm like the fire that has consumed its fuel, who

is a boundless reservoir of mercy that is ineffable and a friend of all

good people that prostrate themselves before him *

 

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* Worshipping such a teacher (GURU) with devotion and approaching him he is

pleased with prostration, humility and service, the disciple should ask him

what he has got to know *

 

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DISCIPLE

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' O master, O friend of those that bow to thee, thou ocean of mercy, I bow

to thee ; save me, fallen as I am into the sea of birth and death, with a

straightforward glance of thine eye which sheds supreme grace like nectar '

 

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* Saveme from death, afflicted as I am by the unquenchable fire of this

world-forest and shaken violently by the wind of an untoward lot, terrified

and so seeking refuge in thee, for I do not know of any other man in whom

to seek shelter *

 

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* There are good souls, calm and magnanimous, who do good to others as does

the spring, and who, having themselves crossed this dreadful ocean of birth

and death, help others also to cross the same, without any motive whatsoever *

 

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* O Lord, with thy nectar-like speech, sweetened by the enjoyment of the

elixir-like bliss of BRAHMAN - do thou sprinkle me who am tormented by

worldly affliction as by the tongues of a forest fire *

 

 

 

* How to cross this ocean of phenomenal existence , what is to be my fate ,

and which of the means should I adopt - as these O know nothing. Condescend

to save me, O Lord, an describe at lenght how to put an end to the misery

of this relative existence *

 

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........... to be continued......

 

OM! LOVE! PREM!

 

S. Narendra