In plain words
His very name is Padmapāda. The guru sent for him and blessed him then and there. “My dear! Service of the guru is itself what is great. You have regarded the guru himself as God. The guru is not one thing and God another.”
The guru is Brahmā, the guru is Viṣṇu, the guru is the god Maheśvara; the guru is the Supreme Brahman made manifest: to that revered guru, salutations.
So he taught. But in this present age, to say the guru himself is Brahmā, the guru himself is Viṣṇu, turns into a deception. God alone is the guru. God alone is Viṣṇu. All those three, creation, sustenance and dissolution, are God alone. “Take God as your guru. Do not take any other person as your guru,” he taught, and blessed Padmapāda. Even before that, the other disciples used to mock Padmapāda. Then, on one occasion, Padmapāda recited by heart all the learning they had learnt, by the grace that came to him through service of the guru. Very grandly, more grandly than those who had studied, he went on expounding it. “My dear! How did you learn it?” asked Śaṅkara.
Lord, Lord of the mountain, Lord of men, Supreme Lord, Sāmba Sadāśiva, Śambhu, Śaṅkara, my refuge is the pair of Your feet.
So, with great humility, he answered that it had come through the guru's grace alone.
The Path to Victory
You alone are everything. I have been wholly offered up to Śaṅkara. If everything is offered to the guru, all things can be achieved. Who is Śaṅkara? Only he who has no śaṅka is Śaṅkara. Śaṅkara has no doubt at all. I have taken refuge in such a one. No one should harbour any doubt about God. If there is doubt, you can achieve nothing. Pray with full faith and with full Prema, and everything will bear fruit. You can win every victory. So music, literature, dance, everything, are things gained by God's grace.