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SWAMI SATCHIDANANDA
the Bhagavad Gita and even build temples for the book, but they don't know one verse.
L.M.: They're not living those truths of the scriptures.
S. SATCH: Mere worshiping of the ladder will not make it go up.
L.M.: The book, or the teacher.
S. SATCH: It's just a ladder. You say: "Oh, this is the ladder my teacher gave me. I worship it, I adore it. How can I step on it?” Because it's a holy object, no. Then what is the point of giving a ladder to you?
L.M.: The teaching is there to be used.
S. SATCH: You have to go up; and once you reach the top, you go on your way and leave the ladder for somebody else. You don't keep on holding onto the ladder saying: this is the ladder that brought me up.
L.M.: We learn to let go.
S. SATCH: Let go—you even have to let go of the teacher himself.
L.M.: That can be difficult, since a certain devotion to the teacher is also necessary.
S. SATCH: In the beginning, it is necessary. After some time however, even that should be discarded, renounced. Because you're attached then to that form.
L.M.: The teacher's outer form and personality. Does the teacher also have an inner form—the true, eternal form in God?
S. SATCH: Yes, yes.
L.M.: We shouldn't get caught up in the external.
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