Editing Guru (section)

===Capabilities, role and methods for helping a student===
[[File:Raja Ravi Varma - Sankaracharya.jpg|thumb|right|upright|''[[Adi Shankara]] with Disciples'', by [[Raja Ravi Varma]] (1904)]]

The 8th century Hindu text ''Upadesasahasri'' of the [[Advaita Vedanta]] philosopher [[Adi Shankara]] discusses the role of the guru in assessing and guiding students.<ref name="ŚaṅkarācāryaMayeda1979">{{cite book|author1=Śaṅkarācārya|author2=Sengaku Mayeda|title=A Thousand Teachings: The Upadeśasāhasrī of Śaṅkara|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KcNM17mfaRgC&pg=PR15|access-date=28 June 2012|year=1979|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-0-7914-0944-2|pages=15–17}}</ref><ref name="Jacobsen2008">{{cite book|author=Knut A. Jacobsen|title=Theory and Practice of Yoga : 'Essays in Honour of Gerald James Larson|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jPK2spNnwm4C&pg=PA75|access-date=28 June 2012|date=1 January 2008|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-3232-9|pages=75–76}}</ref> In Chapter 1, he states that teacher is the pilot as the student walks in the journey of knowledge, he is the raft as the student rows. The text describes the need, role and characteristics of a teacher,<ref name=mayeda92>{{cite book|author1=Śaṅkarācārya|author2=Sengaku Mayeda|title=A Thousand Teachings: The Upadeśasāhasrī of Śaṅkara|year=2006|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-8120827714|page=92}}</ref> as follows,
 
{{Blockquote|
When the teacher finds from signs that knowledge has not been grasped or has been wrongly grasped by the student, he should remove the causes of non-comprehension in the student. This includes the student's past and present knowledge, want of previous knowledge of what constitutes subjects of discrimination and rules of reasoning, behavior such as unrestrained conduct and speech, courting popularity, vanity of his parentage, ethical flaws that are means contrary to those causes. The teacher must enjoin means in the student that are enjoined by the [[Śruti]] and [[Smriti|Smrti]], such as avoidance of anger, [[Yamas]] consisting of [[Ahimsa]] and others, also the rules of conduct that are not inconsistent with knowledge. He [teacher] should also thoroughly impress upon the student qualities like humility, which are the means to knowledge.
|Adi Shankara, Upadesha Sahasri 1.4-1.5<ref>'''Sanskrit''': {{lang|sa|शिष्यस्य ज्ञानग्रहणं च लिन्गैर्बुद्ध्वा तदग्रहणहेतूनधर्म लौकिकप्रमादनित्यानित्य(वस्तु) विवेकविषयासञ्जातदृढपूर्वश्रुतत्व-लोक-चिन्तावेक्षण-जात्याद्यभिमानादींस्तत्प्रतिपक्षैः श्रुतिस्मृतिविहितैरपनयेदक्रोधादिभिरहिंसादिभिश्च यमैर्ज्ञानाविरुद्धैश्च नियमैः ॥ ४॥ अमानित्वादिगुणं च ज्ञानोपायं सम्यग् ग्राहयेत् ॥ ५॥}} [http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_shankara/US_itran_new.html?lang=sa Source];<br />'''English Translation 1''': S Jagadananda (Translator, 1949), Upadeshasahasri, Vedanta Press, {{ISBN|978-8171200597}}, pages 3-4; {{oclc|218363449}}<br/>'''English Translation 2''': {{cite book|author1=Śaṅkarācārya|author2=Sengaku Mayeda|title=A Thousand Teachings: The Upadeśasāhasrī of Śaṅkara|year=2006|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-8120827714}}</ref><ref>Karl Potter (2008), Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies Vol. III, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120803107}}, pages 218-219</ref>}}

{{Blockquote| 
The teacher is one who is endowed with the power of furnishing arguments pro and con, of understanding questions [of the student], and remembers them. The teacher possesses tranquility, self-control, compassion and a desire to help others, who is versed in the Śruti texts ([[Vedas]], [[Upanishads]]), and unattached to pleasures here and hereafter, knows the subject and is established in that knowledge. He is never a transgressor of the rules of conduct, devoid of weaknesses such as ostentation, pride, deceit, cunning, jugglery, jealousy, falsehood, egotism and attachment. The teacher's sole aim is to help others and a desire to impart the knowledge.
|Adi Shankara, Upadesha Sahasri 1.6<ref>S Jagadananda (Translator, 1949), Upadeshasahasri, Vedanta Press, {{ISBN|978-8171200597}}, page 5; {{oclc|218363449}}<br/>'''English Translation 2''': {{cite book|author1=Śaṅkarācārya|author2=Sengaku Mayeda|title=A Thousand Teachings: The Upadeśasāhasrī of Śaṅkara|year=2006|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-8120827714}}</ref>}}

Adi Shankara presents a series of examples wherein he asserts that the best way to guide a student is not to give immediate answers, but posit dialogue-driven questions that enable the student to discover and understand the answer.<ref>Sanskrit: [http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_shankara/upadeshasaahasrii1.pdf Upadesha sahasri];<br />English Translation: S Jagadananda (Translator, 1949), Upadeshasahasri, Vedanta Press, {{ISBN|978-8171200597}}, prose section, page 43; {{oclc|218363449}}</ref>