Talk On Vivek Chudamani

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

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The above-mentioned qualities are, no doubt, quite unavoidable, but we must also note that they are all external features of daring and readiness to act. Since spiritual seeking is not the march of an army, a mere outward discipline in itself will not suffice. It requires of the student some mental and intellectual qualities which are unavoidable and, therefore, it is insisted that he must be well-disciplined in his sense impulses and equally well-balanced in his mental emotions.
Even when he is well under self-restraint, and his mind does not agitate with low trends for sensuousness, even then, the philosophy being so subtle a theme, it is not possible for ordinary people to understand it immediately in all its deep significance at the very first hearing. If the teacher is impatient and has not got the kindness to repeat for the hundredth time, if need be, with equal love and consideration, the student will not be benefited by that teacher. Hence the teacher has been advised to undertake the job of initiating the student with extreme kindness. He should not forget that he himself was at one time a seeker, and in his own times he had his own doubts and difficulties. If the teacher is not divinely kind and godly in his sympathies, the relationship between the teacher and the taught will be broken and thereafter the student can never be guided to the within.
The word 'Kripa' has unfortunately, no corresponding word, .in English. It is not mere ‘kindness'; nor is it some superficial sympathy. If at all we must convey the idea in English, we will have to say that Kripa is an attitude of sympathy, cooked in kindness, honeyed with love, and served in golden dishes of understanding. A man of bad temper and extreme impatience, lacking in sympathy, tolerance and kindness, cannot become a teacher in the path of spirituality, however noble he may be, and however deep his experiences
be.