It is written in the Hindu texts that by living in the company of a guru, saint, or sage one acquires a measure of his enlightenment, holiness, or wisdom. How widely different this measure can be, how ever little and how very large, only exceptional personal experience or a long, comparative study of the records can tell. Side by side with this text, to amplify or correct it, ought to be put, and well mused over, a little incident I once observed in South India, in which the principal character was a very earnest young monk, Swami Dandapani. He had lived for five years, on and off, as an office assistant in the ashram and as a devoted follower of Ramana Maharshi. One day he was expelled forthwith and ordered to leave within twenty-four hours. At night, when everyone had retired to sleep, he went to his guru to inform him of the expulsion and to take farewell. At the end of this occasion he wept. The Maharishee restrained him: "Don't be a fool! You should know that this physical Sat-sang [personal company in an ashram] is only for beginners. When one advances to a certain stage it is better to go away if further and real advancement is to be made. For then one is compelled to seek, and find, the inner guru, within the mind and heart. Even the little birds have to get away from their parents' nest when they have grown wings: they cannot stay always in it. So too the disciples have to practise away from the ashram what they have learnt here, and find there the peace they found here." I followed the Swami's further history as he was a good friend. Years later he became a guru in his own turn, acquired a number of disciples, and settled in his own native village in his own ashram. My own observation, farther afield, is that some seem to acquire nothing at all, whereas others acquire a great deal, from Sat-sang. Whether this acquisition comes about by a kind of osmosis, or by instruction and discussion, or, more likely, by a resultant arising from all three, the necessity of looking within oneself, working with oneself, and depending on oneself cannot be evaded.
-- Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest > Chapter 6 : Student-Teacher > # 860
