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A fit student is one who has unto himself crystallized his idea and, after his logical discussions within himself, has come across certain insurmountable obstacles, for the removal of which he has reached the teacher. Since the doubt was really felt by him, the student could present it in the fewest number of words, indicating at once the logic of his thought.
When, on a dark night, if you had fallen into a wayside well, indeed, your condition is unenviable! You are extremely anxious to relieve yourself from pain. At this moment you hear a pedestrian's steps approaching, and you cry out for help. The benevolent friend reaches the well. Would you, them, from the bottom of the well, begin to narrate to him the entire story of how you came up to the well at that late hour, and how you fell, what all thoughts you had to keep company with in the sandy bottom of the well, etc., etc. besides your name, details of your family, position, status etc.?
No. Under such critical moments you will only cry "I am here in the well; save me please. O! Please, save me imediately. Help me to come out of the well. Save me, Save me." Any other talk will be unnatural. Similarly, a student who has understood that he, in the darkness of his ignorance, has fallen into the dry-well of limitations and sorrow, when sees the master, to that saviour, the Guru, he will have no stories to tell, no idle discussions to make, except his one heart-rending cry, "Save Me! Save Me !.
Sankara, here, through his words of compliments to the disciple, is advising the generations of seekers not to be too wordy when they approach a master. This does not take away from us our liberty to talk to him, in our attempt to evaluate the master. Sankara only means here that having accepted one as a teacher, when one aproaches him for purposes of correct initiation into the subtle Truth of Vedanta, he should not destroy the sanctity of the atmosphere by his exhibition of knowledge and sentiment.
The questions asked by the student here were all couched in a precise, aphoristic style, indicative of the stu
