TRUE DISCIPLESHIP ?

An occasional soul, defying all these constrains, wants to realize this truth and overcome illusion, and such a yearning soul is a fit person to become a disciple.

To become a disciple great preparations are necessary and many conditions must be fulfilled. Following are the five important conditions laid down by the Vedantins.

1) The sincere aspirant must give up all the desires for gain in this world, and in the life to come. Even comforts of the heaven should not tempt him to deviate from the path. Desires indicate want and incompleteness. But this is a falsehood. According to Vedanta we are always full and do not want anything. All knowledge and bliss is our own; we are that. Then to hanker after illusory riches and luxuries, to brood over the condition of the world, or to attempt to improve the social conditions is but ignorance. The world and the heaven are but related to senses. Happiness and pleasure derived there from are only transitory and incomplete. Therefore, the disciple giving up all such falsehood seeks to know the truth and truth alone.

2) The second condition is that the disciple must be able to control the internal and external senses. External senses are visible organs situated in different parts of the body, such as eyes, ears, nose, etc. internal sense organs are corresponding centers of sense perception situated in the brain. We constantly react to the activities of these groups of senses. It is quite obvious that if the sense objects such as beautiful person or scenery are nearby, our visual sense organ is drawn to them. The same is the case with music and sound, fragrance and smell, flavour and taste, touch and contacts. Good or bad, pleasurable or painful, wanted or unwanted we have to react to these sense perceptions; we cannot escape the stimuli. Even though we close our eyes still internal organ of visual perception conjures up dreams and world of imagination. In short, there is no escape in waking or sleeping state.

Instead of being a slave to the mind, the disciple should cultivate such qualities as would enable him/her to control the mind at will. If he does not want to smell he should be able to overcome the sense of smell! His mind should not react to offensive or pleasant smell. This calls for great power of endurance, forbearance, also called as titiksha. The mind naturally seeks comfort and behaves well when everything goes well according to one's liking. But the moment something goes awry, the moment any desire gets obstacle in its fulfillment, it loses its balance. Despondency, anger, frustration, and restlessness follow. Therefore, it is necessary to bear witness to good and bad, joyful and miserable conditions with equidistant poise. One should practice this by not reacting to the internal and external stimuli. Bear all miseries and evil without any murmur of hurt, without any thought of unhappiness, without any resistance, remedy or retaliation.

Instead of being a slave to the mind, the disciple should cultivate such qualities as would enable him/her to control the mind at will. If he does not want to smell he should be able to overcome the sense of smell! His mind should not react to offensive or pleasant smell. This calls for great power of endurance, forbearance, also called as titiksha. The mind naturally seeks comfort and behaves well when everything goes well according to one's liking. But the moment something goes awry, the moment any desire gets obstacle in its fulfillment, it loses its balance. Despondency, anger, frustration, and restlessness follow. Therefore, it is necessary to bear witness to good and bad, joyful and miserable conditions with equidistant poise. One should practice this by not reacting to the internal and external stimuli. Bear all miseries and evil without any murmur of hurt, without any thought of unhappiness, without any resistance, remedy or retaliation.

Initially, therefore, the teachings may appear contrary to the expectations and liking of the disciple, but the disciple must follow, obey, and persevere in the orders, suggestions, and teachings of the Guru. This is called faith. If the teacher asks him to jump from a hilltop, the disciple must first jump and then question the rationality of such an order.

4) The fourth condition is that the disciple must have intense yearning to be free, called as mumukshtva. Other than this, all other desires bind the soul and therefore should be relegated to the background. 'Desire is never satiated by enjoyment; enjoyment only acts as the fuel to fire.' Desire is increased by desire. Our natural constitution prevents us to understand this fact; only Guru can extradite us from this cycle of desires - of birth and death.

5) The last condition of discipleship is the discrimination between real and unreal. God alone is real; rest is unreal and transient. All the time the mind should labour on this thought with full devotion and dedication to the Guru. God only exists; everything else comes and goes. Therefore, the disciple should seek only what is permanent and should strive to become one with it. 'I am not this body; I am not this mind; I am That, I am That' this alone should be the mantra for a true disciple.

All these conditions initially appear awesome. One surely says, 'this is too much.' To find even a single disciple who would accept and adhere to such stringent conditions appears impossible. In such a situation, rather than criticizing, It is better for a disciple to say, "I cannot do it; that it is the ideal I accept, but I am not yet ready to follow it." And just by showing such sincerity, honesty, and humility, the fellow becomes fit for the discipleship!.