Self-Knowledge: Very Difficult to Attain
श्रवणायापि बहुभिर्यो न लभ्यः
शृण्वन्तोऽपि बहवो यं न विद्युः ।
आश्चर्यो वक्ता कुशलोऽस्य लब्धा
आश्चर्यो ज्ञाता कुशलानुशिष्टः ॥ ७॥
śravaṇāyāpi bahubhiryo na labhyaḥ
śṛṇvanto’pi bahavo yaṃ na vidyuḥ .
āścaryo vaktā kuśalo’sya labdhā
āścaryo jñātā kuśalānuśiṣṭaḥ .. 7..
Many there are who do not even hear of Atman; though hearing of Him, many do not comprehend. Wonderful is the expounder and rare the hearer; rare indeed is the experiencer of Atman taught by an able preceptor.
Commentary:
Yama says, “This truth, Nachiketas, about which you have been asking me to speak, is indeed very difficult. I shall tell it to you. Even if it is told and you hear it, you will not be able to comprehend it immediately. Even to hear this great truth is difficult, and if you have the blessing to listen to this kind of truth, you are really a great man, a virtuous person, and you have done great meritorious deeds in the previous birth. Otherwise, the opportunity to even listen to this will not arise.”
There are people who listen to it, but nothing enters their brain. Some sound is made, and some words enter, but what is the meaning of it? What exactly is meant by saying that there is a world above this earth? What exactly is meant by saying that the soul can exist independent of the physical individuality? Who can understand all these things? Even if you are told this, you will not be able to understand it. If anybody can talk and make you understand what it is, that teacher must be a great wonder indeed, and if anyone can receive this knowledge, that student must also be a great wonder. A miracle indeed is the student who can listen to this and understand it, a wonder indeed is the teacher who can actually speak it, a wonder indeed is the person who has understood it, and a wonder indeed is the person who has been able to express it in an intelligible style.
Swami Vivekananda Says —
Many have not even the opportunity to hear about it; and many, though hearing, cannot know it, because the teacher must be wonderful; so must he be wonderful too unto whom the knowledge is carried.[Source] The teacher must be wonderful, so must be the taught.[Source]
To understand this truth is very difficult.[Source] Learn not the truth of the Self save from one who has realised it; in all others it is mere talk. Realisation is beyond virtue and vice, beyond future and past; beyond all the pairs of opposites. “The stainless one sees the Self, and an eternal calm comes in the Soul.” Talking, arguing, and reading books, the highest flights of the intellect, the Vedas themselves, all these cannot give knowledge of the Self.[Source]
The Guru is the conveyance in which the spiritual influence is brought to you. Anyone can teach, but the spirit must be passed on by the Guru to the Shishya (disciple), and that will fructify. The relation between Shishyas is that of brotherhood, and this is actually accepted by law in India. The Guru passes the thought power, the Mantra, that he has received from those before him; and nothing can be done without a Guru.[Source]
