Need of a Spiritual Teacher
न नरेणावरेण प्रोक्त एष
सुविज्ञेयो बहुधा चिन्त्यमानः ।
अनन्यप्रोक्ते गतिरत्र नास्ति
अणीयान् ह्यतर्क्यमणुप्रमाणात् ॥ ८॥
na nareṇāvareṇa prokta eṣa
suvijñeyo bahudhā cintyamānaḥ .
ananyaprokte gatiratra nāsti
aṇīyān hyatarkyamaṇupramāṇāt .. 8..
Atman, when taught by an inferior person, is not easily comprehended, because It is diversely regarded by disputants. But when It is taught by him who has become one with Atman, there can remain no more doubt about It. Atman is subtler than the subtlest and not to be known through argument.
Commentary:
This cannot be known unless it is taught by a person who is here designated as ananya. The word ananya also occurs in the Bhagavadgita. Ananyāś cintayanto māṁ ye janāḥ paryupāsate, teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktāṇāṁ yogakṣemaṁ vahāmyaham (B.G. 9.22): “He who undividedly contemplates on Me.” Here ananya means ‘a person who is non-separate’. Anya means ‘different’ or ‘separate’; ananya means ‘not separate’, ‘not distant’, ‘not isolated from’. Ananya-prokte gatir atra: There is no hope for the student unless he is initiated or taught by one who is ananya, who is non-different from that which he teaches. A professorial knowledge is not what is meant here, because learning of an academic type is not necessarily a part of the very life and existence of the academician. Knowledge has to be non-different from the person who wields this knowledge. It is not enough if we know; we have to be that very thing which we know. Knowledge has to be non-separate from us, and we have to be non-separate from what we know. The knowledge of Truth should be the very essence of our existence. We are an embodiment of that great wisdom which we are imparting to the student. Otherwise, if we stand apart from the knowledge, the knowledge will be there in the study or in the books, and it will not be there in us. If the knowledge that emanates from us in the form of instruction is not an emanation of our own being but it is a modulation of language, an arrangement of words in a linguistic style, that knowledge will not be of any utility, because what counts finally is the being of the person, rather than the words of the person.
The knowledge of the Guru, the teacher, is a ray, a light that emanates from the very existence of the Guru, or the teacher. The knowledge is nothing but an illumination of the teacher. Thus is a possibility of knowing what Truth is. There is no way of knowing it: gatir atra nāsty. The Purusha Sukta says nānyaḥ panthā vidyate’yanāya: Unless we know this Purusha as non-separate from us, there is no way, no hope for us. In a similar way it is said gatir atra nāsty: There is no possibility of achievement of any kind unless one is instructed by a person who is ananya, non-different from Truth itself, virtually a brahmanishta. One who is established in the knowledge of Brahman is a brahmanishta. Otherwise, if it is taught by an ordinary man, it is difficult to understand.
Na nareṇāvareṇa proktā eṣa suvijñeya means ‘the lower category of people’. If a lesser person than the one who is identical with knowledge is our teacher, that knowledge will not help us because the lesser person, who may be helpful to us in gaining a job-oriented education, will not have the knowledge for enlightenment. Na nareṇāvareṇa proktā eṣa suvijñeyo bahudhā cintyamānaḥ: We may go on scratching our head and thinking of it any number of times; if we have been initiated or instructed by a lesser person than the one mentioned here, there is no likelihood of our actually entering into the substance of this knowledge. Why is it so?
Aṇīyān hy atarkyam aṇupramānāt: Subtler than the atom is the subtlety of this knowledge. Gross words, words that we use in language for outer expression, cannot become adequate vehicles to convey this knowledge which is subtler than even the subtlest sound. Of all principles in the world, sound can be regarded as the subtlest. Light is also very subtle. But here is something subtler than light and heat, subtler than sound, subtler than anything that we can think of in terms of the five elements—sabda, sparsha, rupa, rasa, gandha—on account of the intense secrecy and atomic character. Here ‘atomic character’ does not mean a physical characteristic that is attributed to the Atman, but the impossibility of perceiving it as an object of the senses. Only that which is physically characterised can be seen by the sense organs. It is superphysical. Its subtlety lies in the fact that it is not an object of knowledge; it is knowledge itself. Because of this reason, ordinary secular instruction of any kind will not be of any utility here. We have to be instructed by one who is veritably a brahmanishta. Only a Godman can teach us.
Swami Vivekananda Says —
If the speaker is a man who is not highly advanced, then even a hundred times heard, and a hundred times taught, the truth never illumines the soul.[Source]
Now in intellectual development we can get much help from books, but in spiritual development, almost nothing. In studying books, sometimes we are deluded into thinking that we are being spiritually helped; but if we analyse ourselves, we shall find that only our intellect has been helped, and not the spirit. That is the reason why almost everyone of us can speak most wonderfully on spiritual subjects, but when the time of action comes, we find ourselves so woefully deficient. It is because books cannot give us that impulse from outside. To quicken the spirit, that impulse must come from another soul.[Source]
…that is the coming in direct contact with the Mahâpurushas, and thus moulding our lives in accordance with those of the great-souled ones who have reached the Goal. Even disgust for the world and a burning desire for God are not sufficient. Initiation by the Guru is necessary. Why? Because it is the bringing of yourself into connection with that great source of power which has been handed down through generations from one Guru to another, in uninterrupted succession. The devotee must seek and accept the Guru or spiritual preceptor as his counsellor, philosopher, friend, and guide. In short, the Guru is the sine qua non of progress in the path of spirituality. Whom then shall I accept as my Guru? श्रोत्रियोऽवृजिनोऽकामहतो यो ब्रह्मावित्तमः — “He who is versed in the Vedas, without taint, unhurt by desire, he who is the best of the knowers of Brahman.” Shrotriya — he who is not only learned in the Shâstras, but who knows their subtle secrets, who has realised their true import in his life.[Source]
That soul from which this impulse comes is called the Guru, the teacher; and the soul to which the impulse is conveyed is called the disciple, the student. In order to convey this impulse, in the first place, the soul from which it comes must possess the power of transmitting it, as it were, to another; and in the second place, the object to which it is transmitted must be fit to receive it. The seed must be a living seed, and the field must be ready ploughed; and when both these conditions are fulfilled, a wonderful growth of religion takes place. “The speaker of religion must be wonderful, so must the hearer be”; and when both of these are really wonderful, extraordinary, then alone will splendid spiritual growth come, and not otherwise. These are the real teachers, and these are the real students. Besides these, the others are playing with spirituality — just having a little intellectual struggle, just satisfying a little curiosity — but are standing only on the outward fringe of the horizon of religion.[Source]