In my last article I explained about the four basic qualities and shadsampati.  A person who is well restrained and disciplined and has the above said qualities must approach a guru.  Now, Adi Shankaracharya talks about the ideal Guru.  An ideal guru is a Person well-grounded in scriptures, Sinless, not afflicted by desires, the best among realized persons, one whose mind is withdrawn in Brahman, a person of self-restraint, compassion without expectation and should be like a friend while teaching Brahma vidhya.  The guru must have withdrawn the senses from the sense-objects. The guru must be well versed in the scriptures and must have practical experience.  One must serve the guru with obedience, must be gentle in talking, and doing service to the guru erases the impurity in the mind. This period of training is important because it shapes the student and make him fit for higher knowledge.  He must request the guru to teach him that higher knowledge.  Then the guru imparts him that knowledge that liberates him from birth and death.

A good guru having crossed the samsara himself, he wanted to impart the same knowledge to others.  It is the duty of a good guru to share his knowledge with others. If the guru is well satisfied by the nature and discipline of the student, then he can impart the knowledge.  He should impart this knowledge only to a competent Student else this Brahma vidya will be lost by time.  The highest knowledge arises by contemplation on the meaning of the Upanishads.  The guru first explains the basic principle and he teaches the student the meaning of the statements in the Upanishad. The student must have faith in the scriptures and in the guru and must be completely devoted to the guru.  Only then the imparted knowledge will give him benefit.

It is due to ignorance that we have bondage to non-self.  When a person discriminates between self and non-self that itself erases ignorance.  The student (sishya), while they are with the guru, they may ask politely many questions to the guru.

Sishyas ask question to the guru.

The first question is about bondage.  One must know about bondage, to get relief from it, so the student asks “What is bondage.  How has this come and how does it exist firmly.  What is non-self and Atma.”

The guru said, your desire to get free from Maya or bondage itself is important.  It is this desire (mumukshutva) that leads a person to the goal.  By the desire to become Brahman itself means that you are blessed.

Importance of the individual effort

Person has to take self-effort to relieve himself from the bondage. The guru can teach him, but he has to practice and relive himself from the bondage.

Greatness of Self-knowledge.

Liberation is not attained by yoga or karma or by meditating on personal gods. It is attained by the realization of oneness of the Self with Brahman and not otherwise.

Mere scriptural learning is of little use if the Supreme Reality remains unknown. It is also of little use after the Supreme Reality is realized. Without the direct realization, a person is not liberated by the mere words relating to Brahman. Without knowing the real nature of a person by experience, where is liberation.  The mind has to be purified first.  Then Knowledge reveals Brahman.

Cont…