उपदेशसाहस्री (आदि शङ्कराचार्य - गद्य व पद्य भाग)

A METHOD OF ENLIGHTENING THE DISCIPLE 9 12, 13. If he says, "I am different from the body. The body is born and dies, is eaten up by birds, is destroyed by weapons, fire etc., and suffers from diseases and the like. I have entered it, like a bird its nest, on account of merit and demerit accruing from acts done by myself, and like a bird going to another nest when the previous one is destroyed I shall enter into different bodies again and again as a result of merits and demerits when the present body is gone. Thus in this beginningless world on account of my own actions I have been giving up successive bodies assum- ed among gods, men, animals and the denizens of hell and assuming ever new ones. I have in this way been made to go round and round in the cycle of endless births and deaths, as in a Persian wheel by my past actions, and having in the course of time obtained the present body I have got tired of this going round and round in the wheel of transmigration, and have come to you, Sir, to put an end to this rotation. I am, therefore, always different from the body. It is bodies that come and go, like clothes on a person,"—the teacher would reply, "You have spoken well. You see aright. Why then did you wrongly say, 'I am the son of a Brâhmaṇa belonging to such and such a lineage, I was a student or a householder and am now a wandering monk?'" तं प्रति ब्रूयादाचार्यः—स यदि ब्रूयात् भगवन्, कथमहं मृषाऽवादिषमिति ॥ १४ ॥ यतस्त्वं भिन्नजात्यन्वयसंस्कारं शरीरं जात्यन्वयवर्जितस्यात्मनः प्रत्यभ्यज्ञासीः ब्राह्मणपुत्रोऽदो- न्वय इत्यादिना वाक्येनेति ॥ १५ ॥