Talk On Vivek Chudamani

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

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He who is well-versed in the Scriptures, sinless, unsmitten by desires, a full-knower of the supreme, who has retired himself into the Consciousness of the Supreme, who is as calm as the fire that has burnt up all the fuel, who is a boundless ocean of mercy that knows no cause for its expression and who is a 'father of those who approach him with due reverence and meekness.
Sankara exhausts his enumeration of the qualities of the true Guru in this stanza, and supplements his previous declaration that the master should be well-established in the Supreme-Consciousness. He adds here certain qualities which, on a closer observation, declare that every man of realization and wisdom cannot aspire to and become an efficient teacher in spiritualism. To guide and instruct a deluded soul and help him to unwind himself out of the knotty wrong traits in him, one must have something more than a perfect experience. The teacher must have, no doubt, full realization, but he must also have a complete grasp of the great Scriptures; because, without the study of the Scriptures, the master who has experience, will not have the language or the technique of expression to convey his deep Knowledge to his disciples.
Apart from the spiritual knowledge and erudition, the individual must have a large share of self-control and the immense riches of a well-developed heart. He must have an irresistible flow of mercy which demands no special cause for its manifestations, especially when it descends upon those who have surrendered themselves to him and have desperately reached the feet of the master as a spiritual 'refugee'.
It is to be noted that, as in any constitution, the laws are prescribed both for the governors and the governed; similarly, here also, since Viveka Chūdāmani is a text-book laying down the rules for, and explaining the laws of spiritual progress, Sankara is as much vehement in prescribing the qualities necessary for a spiritual seeker as he is equally exhaustive in describing the qualities of an honest and true teacher.