As a poet, philosopher and preceptor par excellence, Adi Sankara’s name is synonymous with the Advaita Siddhanta he has firmly established in the spiritual tradition. Apart from his discerning bashyas to the Prastanatraya texts, he has composed many Prakarana granthas to instil faith and belief in this tradition at a time when people were confused by doubts about the validity of the Vedas and of the Supreme Brahman. He travelled through the length and breadth of the country to debate, discuss and argue for this siddhanta. In his grantha Satasloki, he pays a glowing tribute to the role of the preceptor who alone is capable of transmitting the highest knowledge, atma tatva, to his disciples, said Sri K. Ramasubramaniam in a discourse.
Generally many laukika ideas, objects etc, are grasped by means of comparison, description, inference, etc. In sastras too, for instance, the all-pervading atma swaroopa is explained by comparing it to the akasa. In the medical field, analysis, extensive tests, etc, lead to research findings that are based on inference or anumana. But the acharya confesses in the first verse of this grantha that he has checked thoroughly for a suitable analogy to describe the ineffable greatness of the guru’s grace. The guru imparts jnana which is very rare and at best, the example of the philosopher’s stone may seem to be a fitting analogy. This stone has the power to convert base metals into gold and even so, the acharya converts even a dull sishya into a realised soul.
But the analogy falls short because the transformed gold does not possess the power of the philosopher’s stone. But in the case of the guru, when an ordinary disciple is initiated to the state of realisation, he too automatically gets the power to convert his disciples also into jnanis.
