COUNSELS

UNFORTUNATE IT IS TO BE SEIZED BY A WATER-SNAKE

ONE day as I was passing the Panchavati44 on my way to the pine-grove, I heard a bullfrog croaking. I thought it must have been seized by a snake. After sometime, as I was coming back, I could still hear its terrified croaking. I looked to see what was the matter, and found that a water-snake had seized it. The snake could neither swallow it nor give it up. So there was no end to the frog's suffering. I thought that had it been seized by a cobra it would have been silenced after three croaks at the most. As it was only a water-snake, both of them had to go through this agony.

A man's ego is destroyed after three croaks, as it were, if he gets into the clutches of a real teacher. But if the teacher is an 'unripe' one, then both the teacher and the disciple undergo endless suffering. The disciple cannot get rid either of his ego or of the shackles of the world. If a disciple falls into the clutches of an incompetent teacher, he does not attain liberation. (205).

44 One of the temple gardens at Dakshineswar.