Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.1162

c9.1162

9) The Caṇḍālaguru. There is a story about Śiva going to Śaṅkara at Kāśī in the guise of a Caṇḍāla and Śaṅkara receiving him. One morning Śaṅkara, after bathing in the Gaṅgā, was returning to the Viśvanātha temple. A Caṇḍāla with his hunting dogs and a pot of liquor was advancing from the opposite direction of Śaṅkara, who asked the former to move away from his path. Immediately the Caṇḍāla asked, which, the body or soul, is to remove itself from the path? The body of everybody is composed of blood, flesh, bones etc; the constitution of it also is the same. But, the Ātman is universal and omnipresent. Whom-which of the two-are you asking to move away from your path? Śaṅkara realised from the above answer that the Caṇḍāla was an extraordinary person. In fact, it was Śiva, who had disguised himself as a Caṇḍāla. Śaṅkara prostrated before him. Śaṅkara thought about God saying that he who had attained Brahman and the consciousness of oneness with all, was his Guru, whether he be a Brahmin or a Caṇḍāla.