In plain words
For what? She was to give him leave for sannyāsa. But she would not give up her stand. While she was drawing water, he leapt into the Kāverī. He raised one hand up. ‘Mother, a crocodile is swallowing me. Even now, give me leave for sannyāsa,’ he said. His mother: ‘My son, if you live, that is enough; take sannyāsa! Come back,’ she said. After he had come to the bank, he said: ‘The crocodile caught hold of me. What is this crocodile? In the ocean called saṃsāra, the crocodile called a wife was swallowing me. If I give up all attachment, that crocodile lets go.’ What is sannyāsa? It is nothing but a change in one's ways of thinking! Bowing to his mother, in that sixteenth year itself, he left home. His mother asked for a promise: ‘At least at my last hour I must see you. So you must come,’ she said. In those days there were no buses, cars or planes, no means of travel. Travelling in many ways, he visited all the holy places. Wherever there were paṇḍits of the Vedas and paṇḍits of the Śāstras, he defeated them all in debate. He taught Advaita to all. You think of things as separate. The shapes are different! The heads are different! But the heart is one! That is Divinity itself. There may be any number of sugarcanes. The juice that comes from all the sugarcanes is one! Divinity, like that cane juice, dwells in all as the very form of the juice. He defeated many paṇḍits. One of them, Maṇḍana Miśra, took his stand on the doctrine of karma. To refute this doctrine of karma and teach the doctrine of Advaita alone, he debated with him. In this way, throughout the whole of Bhārata, from Kanyākumārī to Kashmir, he travelled many times. In the end he won all the paṇḍits over. There is only One! Not two. ‘Ekameva advitīyaṃ.’ We are deluded only by forms and names.
Hold Fast to the Root That Is the Base of All
We must hold fast to the root support that is the base of everything. Without the root support nothing at all can be done.