Shankara meets his Master

Shankara meets his Master.

One scorching day of summer, Adi Shankaracharya and his followers were going to bathe in the river Ganges at the Manikarna ghat. A Chandala (an untouchable and worker at the cremation ground, at the very bottom of the social scale) with four dogs held in leash, was approaching in a disorderly manner from the opposite direction. Finding no other way of avoiding a confrontation with him, Shankara addressed him and said, “Oh, you Chandala, step aside one side with your canine company, and let us pass”. The Chandala did not appear to have listened to his words at all, and did not tarry of deflect, but continued to advance. Shankara in a somewhat excited voice cried out again, “Stop, fellow, stop. Restrain and pacify your curs. Leave a passage free for us”. The terrible looking Chandala burst out into hideous guffaw and turning to Shankara, spoke out in Sanskrit verses, “Whom are you asking to move aside , Sir? Are you demanding the self to do so or the body to do so? The Self is omnipresent, non-active, ever pure by nature. If instead you ask the physical body to move aside, you know that the body is inert matter, how can it move aside at all? And moreover, in what respect is your body distinct and different from any other body? You say that you are firmly established and rooted in the Supreme Truth and there is but One non-dual entity, ‘One without a Second’. I see that your claim is all false, you are indulging in vain pride. Is there any difference between the Chandala and the Brahmin from the viewpoint of the knower of the Truth? Are the sun reflected in the water of Ganga and the sun reflected in the wine different and separate from each other? Is this your knowledge of the All-ness the

Absolute Reality, so circumscribed? “ Hearing these words of the Chandala, surcharged with wisdom, Shankara was both amazed and ashamed. That this was without a doubt the play of the Divine, he clearly perceived. Then and there he folded his palms in adoration and spoke prayerfully, “He who perceives all beings with an awareness of Same-sightedness, acts in consonance with that perception of sameness in all, he indeed is my Guru. You Chandala are my Guru. I bow down at his holy feet a million times”. All of a sudden the Chandala and his canine company disappeared. But Shankara beheld another sight. The Divine form of the eternal Lord and Father of the Universe, Sri Mahadeva, radiant and shining with the light of thousands of crores of suns and fire, stood before him in all glory holding in His hands the four Vedas.