Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c11.s4.36

c11.s4.36

**Need of the Teacher.** The necessity of self-study did not preclude that of the student finding a teacher for himself. The futility of mere self-study is always recognized. The teacher is represented as indispensable to knowledge in *Kaṭha-Upanishad* [ii, 8] : "Apart from the teacher, there is no access here." Similarly, the *Muṇḍaka-Upanishad* [i, 2, 3] : "Let him, in order to understand this, take fuel in his hand and approach a Guru who is learned and dwells entirely in Brahman." Again [iii, 2, 3] : "Not by self-study is the *ātman* realized, not by mental power ; nor by amassing much information." A teacher is regarded as necessary to disperse the mist of empirically acquired knowledge from our eyes, as explained so beautifully in the following passage from the Chhāndogya Upanishad [vi, 14, 1–2] : "Precisely my dear sir, as a man who has been brought blindfold from the country of Gandhāra and then set at liberty in the desert, goes astray to the east or north or south, because he has been brought thither blindfold and blindfold set at liberty ; but after that someone has taken off the bandage, and has told him, 'In this direction Gandhāra lies, go in this direction,' instructed and prudent, asking the road from village to village, he finds his way home to Gandhāra ; even so the man, who in this world has met with a teacher, becomes conscious, 'To this (transitory world) shall I belong only until the time of my release, thereupon shall I go home.'"