Passage 1

10. The Qualifications of Guru and Disciple

“Brother-in-law! Dhanañjaya, only he who truly sees karma and akarma as they are is a real paṇḍita. No one should be thought a paṇḍita merely for learning by heart what is in a book and lodging it in his head. He is no paṇḍita. Only he whose Buddhi is fit for samyag-darśana is called a paṇḍita. For one who has earned such wealth of Jñāna, all karmas can be shattered to pieces (in the jñāni's own view). The fire of Jñāna has that power to burn. Some, however, hold that even jñānis must without fail undergo prārabdha karma; this rests on the view of others. To others it only seems that the jñāni has prārabdha; in his own view there is none. He who does not depend on worldly objects, who does not crave the pleasures of the senses, whom vāsanās and desires of every kind have left: in such a one, sound and the rest cannot exert even their influence. Only he who has reached this state earns the name of sannyāsi. He alone has cast off all possessions. He alone is the jñāni: one who, never depending on external objects or sense-objects, finds contentment in himself, by himself. He is the great soul, the paṇḍita, who has seen akarma in karma and karma in akarma. Though such a person goes on engaging in karma, he is not in the least answerable for those karmas. The jñāni has no desire for the fruit. Perhaps you ask, what is the reason? Listen! He is ever content, and the one who is content leans on nothing. He is without the feeling of doership. Whatever comes to him, unfavourable or favourable, whether by prārabdha through the will of others or by prārabdha unwilled, he meets without rāga and dveṣa and remains ever content. He is also called ‘yadṛcchā-lābha-santuṣṭa’. Knowing that whatever happens happens by God's will, serene in unbroken Praśānti, with unwavering citta, he dances the tāṇḍava in abiding Ānanda. The one who has contentment is the jñāni; the discontented one is the ajñāni.” So Kṛṣṇa Paramātma taught.