Merkmale und Charakter eines Advaita-Meisters und Advaita-Lehrers nach Shankara
Aus: UPADESA SAHASRI of SRI SANKARACHARYA
A THOUSAND TEACHINGS
PART I (PROSE)
CHAPTER I
A METHOD OF ENLIGHTENING THE DISCIPLE
1. We shall now explain a method of teaching the means (self-knowledge)to liberation for the benefit of those aspirants after liberation who are desirous (of this teaching) and are possessed of faith (in it).
2. That means to liberation, viz., Knowledge, should be explained again and again until it is firmly grasped, to a pure Brahmana disciple who is indifferent to everything that is transitory and achievable through certain means, who has given up the desire for a son, for wealth, and for this world (attainable through the birth of a son, Br. Upanishad, 1.5.16. and Brihad-Aranyaka-Upanishad 6.4.1, Shankara’s commentary)and the next (the region of the fathers, the result of vedic actions, and that of the gods, the result of meditation. Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad 1.5.16.) who has adopted the life of a wandering monk and is endowed with control over the mind and senses, with compassion etc., as well as with the qualities of a disciple well-known in the scriptures, and who has approached the teacher in the prescribed manner, and has been examined in respect of his caste, profession, conduct, learning and parentage.
3. The Sruti (mundaka Upanishad, 1.2.12,13)also says, ,,A Brahmana after examining those worlds which are the result of Vedic actions should be indifferent to them seeing that nothing eternal can be achieved by means of those actions. Then, with fuel in his hands he should approach a teacher versed in the Vedas and established in Brahman in order to know the Eternal. The learned teacher should correctly explain to that disciple who has self-control and a tranquil mind, and has approached him in the prescribed manner, the knowledge of Brahman revealing the imperishable and the eternal Being." For only when knowledge is firmly grasped, it conduces to one's own good and is capable of transmission. This transmission of knowledge is helpful to people, like a boat to one who wants to cross a river. The scriptures too say, “Although one may give to the teacher this world surrounded by oceans and full of riches, this knowledge is even greater than that." Otherwise(if it were not taught by a teacher)there would be no attainment of knowledge. For the Srutis say, ,,A man(Chhandogya Upanishad 6.14.2)having a teacher can know Brahman,” ,,Knowledge(Chhandogya Upanishad 4.9.3.)received from a teacher alone (becomes perfect)," ,,The teacher is the pilot," ,,Right Knowledge is called in this world a raft," etc. The Smrti(Bhagavad Gita 4.34)also says, ,,Knowledge will be imparted to you" etc.
4. When the teacher finds from signs that knowledge has not been grasped (or has been wrongly grasped) by the disciple he should remove the causes of non-comprehension which are: past and present sins, laxity, want of previous firm knowledge of what constitutes the subjects (the SELF and the non-self)of discrimination between the eternal and the non-eternal, courting popular esteem, vanity of caste etc., and so on, through means contrary to those causes, enjoined by the Srutis and Smrtis, viz., avoidance of anger etc., and the vows (Yama, i.e. non-injury, truthfulness, non-stealing, continence and non-acceptance of gifts) consisting of non-injury etc., also the rules of conduct that are not inconsistent with knowledge.
5. He should also thoroughly impress upon the disciple qualities like humility, which are the means to knowledge.
6. The teacher is one who is endowed with the power of furnishing arguments pro and con, of understanding questions (put by the disciple) and remembering (so as to answer them) them, who possesses tranquillity, self-control, compassion and a desire to help others, who is versed (through instructions traditionally handed down to him) in the scriptures and unattached to enjoyments both seen and unseen (i.e. both here and hereafter), who has renounced the means to all kinds of actions, who is a knower of Brahman and is established in it, who is never a transgressor of the rules of conduct, and who is devoid of shortcomings such as ostentation, pride, deceit, cunning, jugglery, jealousy, falsehood, egotism and attachment. He has the sole aim of helping others and a desire to impart the knowledge of Brahman only. He should first of all teach the Sruti texts establishing the oneness of the self with Brahman such as, ,,My child, in the beginning it (the universe) was Existence only, one alone without a second," (Chhandogya Upanishad, 6.2.1.) ,,Where one sees nothing else” (Chhandogya Upanishad 7.24.1.), “All this is but the Self,” (Chhandogya Upanishad 7.25.2), “In the beginning all this was but the one Self” (Aittareya Upanishad, 1.1.1.) and ,,All this is verily Brahman.” (Chhandogya Upanishad, 3.14.1)
Der Lehrer ist jemand, dem die Fähigkeit gegeben ist, das Für und Wider eines Diskussionsgegenstandes zu beurteilen, Fragen (die vom Schüler gestellt werden) zu verstehen und zu erinnern (um sie zu beantworten), der Frieden, Selbst-Kontrolle, Mitgefühl und den Wunsch, anderen zu helfen, besitzt, der die tradierte heilige Lehre erfaßt hat und in den Schriften versiert ist und der sichtbaren oder unsichtbaren Vergnügungen (d.h. sowohl jetzt als auch in Zukunft) nicht verhaftet ist, der den Mitteln für alle Arten von Handlungen entsagt hat, der ein Kenner von Brahman und in Ihm etabliert ist, der niemals zum Übertreter der Verhaltensregeln wird, und der ohne Mängel wie Wichtigtuerei, Stolz, Betrug, List, Verdrehungen, Schwindel, Eifersucht, Unwahrheit, Egoismus und Anhaftung (Verhaftetsein) ist. Er hat als einziges Ziel, anderen zu helfen und den Wunsch, ausschließlich das Wissen von Brahman weiter zu geben. Er sollte zu allererst die Sruti-Texte lehren, die das Eins-Sein des Selbst mit Brahman etablieren wie “Mein Kind, im Anfang war (das Universum) reine Existenz, eines ohne ein zweites”, “Wo man nichts anderes sieht”, “All dies ist nur das Selbst”, “Im Anfang war all dies nur das eine Selbst”, “All dies ist wahrhaftig Brahman”.
7, 8. After teaching these he should teach the definition of Brahman through such Sruti texts as
„The self, devoid of sins” (Chhandogya Upanishad 8.7.1.),
“The Brahman that is immediate and direct” (Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad 3.4.1.),
“That which is beyond hunger and thirst“ (Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad 3.5.1.),
„Not-this, not-this” (Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad 2.3.6.),
“Neither gross nor subtle“ (Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad 3.8.8.),
„This Self is not-this“ (Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad 3.9.26.),
“It is the Seer Itself unseen“ (Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad 3.8.11.),
„Knowledge-Bliss” (Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad sloka 7, unter 3.9.27.),
“Existence-Knowledge-Infinite“ (Taittiriya Upanishad 2.1.),
„Imperceptible, bodiless“ (Taittiriya Upanishad 2.7.),
„That great unborn Self” (Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad 4.4.22.),
„Without the vital force and the mind“ (Mundaka Upanishad 2.1.2.),
„Unborn, comprising the interior and exterior“ (Mundaka Upanishad 2.1.2.),
„Consisting of knowledge only“ (Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad 2.4.12.),
„Without interior or exterior“ (Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad 2.5.19),
„It is verily beyond what is known as also what is unknown“ (Kena Upanishad 1.3.),
and „Called Akasa (the self-effulgent one)” (Chhandogya Upanishad 8.14.1.);
and also through such Smrti texts as the following:
„It neither born nor dies“ (Bhagavad Gita 2.20.),
„It is not affected by anybody's sins“ (Bhagavad Gita 5.15.),
„Just as air is always in the ether“ Bhagavad Gita 9.6.),
„The individual Self should be regarded as the universal one“ (Bhagavad Gita 13.2.),
„It is called neither existent nor nonexistent“ (Bhagavad Gita 13.12.),
„As the Self is beginningless and devoid of qualities“ (Bhagavad Gita 13.31.),
„The same in all beings” (Bhagavad Gita 13.27.), and
„The Supreme Being is different” (Bhagavad Gita 15.17)
- all these support the definition given by the Srutis and prove that the innermost Self is beyond transmigratory existence and that it is not different from Brahman, the all-comprehensive principle.
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