If you find a teacher that has all of the qualities described so far, what should you do? Serve him with humility and have affection towards him. Don't find fault with him. Make his greatness heart felt and expect your good fortune from him. In this manner, orient the teacher towards you with your service and affection.
Then, it is not the case that he will teach you when he feels like it. In the tradition of devotion, it is alright that whenever he feels gracious he should teach. But in the tradition of knowledge, it is a mistake to think in this manner, and demonstrates a lack of alertness. For the one who has intense longing for liberation and its knowledge, his heart will begin to tear unless he knows that knowledge. Until the intense longing for knowledge of liberation does not arise, it is not considered as liberation in its true sense.
When the teacher is pleased, one should approach him humbly and ask him questions. (Gita 4.34).
"Know that essence from the knower of the essence". How? By the means, in other words, by dropping all ego, through service, and through inquiry.
The topic of the inquiry should be "the self". Ask : "O Lord! 'I am', this I experience but 'what am I, who am I, where have I come from, where will I go, why have I come' - all this I cannot fathom. Please tell me 'who am I'? I have heard that the lord of the universe is brahman. What is that brahman. Where does he stay, what is my relationship with him, I do not know this. Please tell me who is that? The scripture says that without the knowledge of brahman, one does not attain liberation. What is the identity of that knowledge of brahman? If I am in bondage, how will my liberation happen?".
When asking these question, you need to keep four points in mind : (1) The question should be about that topic of which you are ignorant. Don't ask about that which you already know about. When you do not know something or know a little of something or you are not satisfied with its grasping, information or belief, then only should you ask the question. Do not make fake questions just for the sake of asking something that you do not have curiosity about. (2) Do not ask questions for the sake of argument. It will not solve any issues. The question of a seeker and the answer of a teacher should not become a debate. First ask the question, then hear the answer, then contemplate upon the answer and then if there is a doubt then ask the question again. (3) If you do not want to understand it or having understood it, you do not want to accept it then do not ask a question. (4) Do not ask a question just so you can negate what the teacher says. This is frivolous behaviour.
It could be possible that the teacher tests your real situation. Seekers sometimes get deluded into thinking that they have reached a particular stage when in reality, this is not the case. The scriptures call this "alambha bhoomikatva". When you think you have reached a certain stage when in fact you have not, it becomes an obstacle in your journey. That is why the teacher assesses our stage and sometimes makes some statements that cuts our fake pride. The student should withstand this with honour. And he should carry out the teacher's command. If a student cannot bear the harsh words of his teacher, how will he develop the fortitude the bear the harsh words of the world?
What will be the first words that the teacher will utter to one who has taken his refuge? He will say : My child, do not fear. The teacher will begin from there where the result of Vedanta lies. The result of Vedanta is : "O Janaka, you have attained fearlessness". (Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad 4.2.4). It is not the case that there will be no more association-disassociation, coming-going in this world, that the body will not drop - all this will stay and let it stay, but become fearless, this is the result of Vedanta.
Shree Shankaraachaarya Bhagavaan says that it befits a teacher to immediately bestow fearlessness to the student. (Vivekachoodamani 43). In reality, all sorrows in this world are not sorrows at all, they are only fear. There is no sorrow in death, there is only the fear of death, because no one has ever experienced their death. The fear is not of death, the fear is of the annihilation of one's created world. That household created by us, our parents, our children, our spouse, what will happen to all of them? This is the fear. Nothing will happen, these were not yours before, and these will never be yours in the future, you are taking them to be yours in the middle and are crying. He whose mind has renunciation-dispassion, non-attachment, for him there is no fear, death or sorrow. For him, death is a natural state. The entire world is an appearance in his self. It feels sweet due to the ignorance of the self, and then, there is sorrow of its loss.
In reality, there is no such thing called sorrow. "I am sad". This thought flow in itself is the identity of sorrow. Lament is also sorrow, that is why it is fear. The recollection of a prior sorrow is called lament. So then everything is fear. The one who makes fearlessness out of fear is the teacher. He is your foremost well-wisher.
The teacher does not think of the right of the student to take his refuge. He does not first consider whether or not the student will gain knowledge or liberation! Without any thought, and solely out of compassion, he places his hand on the student's head and says do not fear my child! The vision of the teacher towards everyone is that of ever-pure-aware-free. And the statement of the student of his fear, ignorance and sorrow is only an appearance of ignorance from the standpoint of the teacher. It cannot stand in front of one ray of knowledge. What is left is the right of the student. Whoever takes the refuge of the teacher has the foremost right. If he did not have the qualification then how would he come to the teacher to begin with? Emotional obstacles do not have a place in the teacher's vision, since at all times, the teacher is only looking at the brahman-identity in everyone.
The student should take the refuge of the teacher, should be a mumukshu, should listed to the word of the teacher and his mind should be serene, in other words there should not be too much running around in his mind that he has to go here or there, do this or that. This will only happen when there is no modification (vikaara) in the mind. Such a student is qualified to receive the teaching of the essence from the teacher.
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