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THE ASPIRANT AND THE TEACHER.
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name, will immediately destroy this convey. ing medium. God is love, and only he who has known God as love can be a teacher of godliness and of God to man.
When you see, that in your teacher these conditions are all fulfilled, you are safe ; if they are not, it is unsafe to allow yourself to be taught by him, for there is the great danger that, if he cannot convey goodness into your heart, he may convey wickedness. This danger must by all means be guarded against. "He who is learned, sinless and unpolluted by lust, he is the greatest knower of the Brahman."*
From what has been said, it naturally follows that we cannot be taught to love, appreciate, and assimilate religion everywhere and by everybody. The "sermon in stones, books in running brooks, and good in
. fastsaforisanament faufama: 1
(Vivekachud'amani, 34 sloka ) 24