Talk On Vivek Chudamani

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

Page 38

very necessary because without it the master will not be able to come down to the level of the disciples and sympathetically appreciate the students' difficulties in understanding the Sastras and in living up to the high discipline that is expected of them in the Śrutis.
The word 'samāsādhya' -by duly approaching is a simple word of pregnant suggestions used here in this stanza. This prescribes the mental attitude with which a seeker should approach the master in order that he may benefit the maximum during his intercourse with the teacher.
मेधावी पुरुषो विद्वान् ऊहापोहविचक्षणः । अधिकार्यात्मविद्यायामुक्तलक्षणक्षितः ॥ १६॥
puruso vidvan uhapohavicakṣanah adhikāryātmavidhyāyāmuktalakṣanalakṣitah 16.
मेधावी - ( a man) acute memory, पुरुषः - a man, विद्वान् - who is learned,: capable of clear analysis, and of argument for and against, अधिकारीa fit person, आत्मविद्यायां - for the knowledge of the Atman, उक्तलक्षणलक्षितः one who has the above
characteristics.
medhāvi
31
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A man of acute memory, with enough general knowledge of the world outside and understanding of the world within, and with a fair efficiency in arguing, is one who is generally fit for Atma Vidya-meaning, fit for walking the Path of Knowledge.
*Refer Verse 8.
Here we have the enumeration of some of the general qualities necessary before a student can successfully undertake even a study of the Upanishads. The faculty of memory (medha) is not merely a prodigious capacity exhibited by some students who can memorise an impossible amount of Scriptures in a very short time. Among the men of letters in England, there was a mania once to memorise long poems, and we are told that many could repeat the whole of Milton's Paradise Lost or, perhaps the whole of Shakespearian