Talk On Vivek Chudamani

Author(s): Chinmayanand Swami
Publisher: Chinmay Publications Trust

Page 26

19
full realization and experience but he should be 'mahantam', large-hearted, sympathetic and kind person. Without these qualifications of the heart, he will not be able to come down from the high seat of his experience and mingle with the imperfect seekers who come to them, and fully understand their difficulties in the path. One can be a Guru only if he has the required large-heartedness, an intimate personal experience of the Divinity, and if he be well-versed in the great Scriptures.
A thorough study of the Scriptures gives the teacher the necessary language of expressions and also the required intellectual arguments to convert a student's doubts into abiding convictions. There are hundreds of great saints who have been in their own caves sitting silently, brimful with their experiences, and yet mum to the world at large. There are many now among us: and the difficulty with them is that they have music in them but have no flute to play it through, and hence the word 'Desikam'-well-read in scripturesis of special importance in this stanza.
Even if a seeker discovers such a perfect master, unless the student has got the necessary mental attitude, he will not be able to react himself favourably with the great master's presence or even his discussions. The necessary attitude is indicated by the word 'samupetya'. The rule of approaching a master is not merely a prescription for a sapless formality. It mainly indicates a mental attitude. If we approach a master in an attitude of judging him by weighing his knowledge, certainly we are not going to be benefited. There are others who approach a man of wisdom to make him understand how far his guest is a man of wisdom himself! This exhibitionism of one's own laboriously gathered secondhand informations will choke our hearts and we will not be able to gain from the master's words rising from his own first-hand experiences. Water flows only to a lower level also, too, with the flow of knowledge. Unless we have the meekness and the spirit of surrender, knowledge cannot reach us.
This divine attitude of full receptivity is the aroma of a heart which has reverence and surrender to, faith in and