Zend Avesta Part 01

SR No.: 007671
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: James Darmesteter
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1895
Total Pages: 2695
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 49 MB

Page 2031

176
SANATSUGÂTIYA.
preceptor, and becoming (as it were) a fætus, practise the life of Brahmakârins, become even in this world authors of Sâstras , and they repair to the highest truth' after casting off (this) body. They subjugate desires here in this world, practising forbearance in pursuit of the Brahmic states; and with courage, they even here remove the self out of the body", like the soft fibres from the Muñga. Father and mother, O descendant of Bharata ! only form the body. But the births obtained from the preceptor, that verily is true o, and likewise immortal. He perfects ? (one), giving (one) immortality. Re. cognising what he has done (for one), one should not injure him. The disciple should always make obeisance to the preceptor 8; and, free from heedlessness, should always desire sacred instruction. When the pure man obtains knowledge by this same course of discipleship, that is the first quarter of his life as a Brahmakârin. As (is) his conduct
Learned, men of knowledge, Sankara. • The supreme, which is described as 'truth, knowledge,' &c. In our ancient works the truth often means the real.
• The state of being absorbed in the Brahman. Cf. Gstå, p. 53. • Cf. Katha, p. 158.
• Sankara cites Âpastamba (p. 11) in support of this, and Prasnaupanishad, p. 256. The consciousness of being one with the Brahman is a new birth. See, too, Mundaka, p. 282.
• That birth is not merely delusive, and does not result in death.
' Immortality or final emancipation is not to be achieved without knowledge, which can only be got from a preceptor. And one is not perfect without that immortality; one is limited by the conditions of human existence. See Virukia (Roth's ed.), p. 41.
• Sankara compares Svelîsvatara, p. 374 ; see also p. 203 infra. The necessity of having a Guru is often insisted on even in the Upanishads. Cf. Mundaka, p. 282; K'hindogya, p. 264.
• Stared at the beginning of this speech, Sankara.
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