"Advice of the Guru"( verses 41-47.)"

 

 

 

 

Loving advice of the Guru (verses 41-47):

 

41. As he speaks, afflicted by and seeking protection from the blaze of the fire of 'samsara'*—the noble Teacher looks at him in all pity and kindness and spontaneously bestows upon him protection from fear.

*Samsara denotes worldly existence. This is an important term in Indian philosophy and must be understood clearly. Hinduism takes the worldly existence (conditioned by time, space, and causality) as bondage. That is, the cycle of births and deaths is referred to as the ocean of samsara (bhavasaagar), i.e., ocean of repeated births and deaths and all that goes in between. To seek freedom from the bondage of becoming is considered to be the supreme end of life, the param-purushartha.

42. To him, who, thirsting for liberation, has sought the protection of the Teacher, and who abides by scriptural injunctions, who has a calm mind and a serene heart , the Master should give out the knowledge of the Truth with utmost kindness.

43. Fear not, O learned one! There is no danger for you. There is a way to cross over this ocean of relative existence. I shall instruct you in the very path by which the ancient Seers have reached the Beyond.

44. There is a supreme means by which you can put an end to the fear of relative existence; by that you will cross the sea of samsara and attain the Bliss Supreme.

45. The highest knowledge arises from an inquiry into the meaning of the Vedanta. By this knowledge, immediately a total annihilation of all sorrows of birth and death takes place.

46. Faith, devotion and the practice of meditation---these are declared in the scriptures as the chief factors that help a seeker to attain liberation. Whoever pursues these is liberated from the 'bondage'* of the body mysteriously forged by spiritual ignorance.

*Bondage of the body means false identification of the body with one‘s Self. This is considered to be the basic ignorance in Vedanta and the root cause of Samsara, the endless cycle of births and deaths.

47. You are indeed the supreme Self but due to your association with ignorance you find yourself under the bondage of the not-self, which is the sole cause of the cycle of births and deaths. All the effects of ignorance, root and branch, are burnt down by the fire of knowledge, which arises from discrimination between these two—the Self and the not-Self.

Note: This verse admirably sums up the entire teachings of Sankara. As pointed out in the previous verse, the false identification of the Self with the non-Self is considered to be the root cause of Samsara. When through self-inquiry this false identification removed, it is called liberation.