When a disciple obeys and serves his Guru with trust and faith, the blessings which flow as reward from the Guru are enormous and life transforming. This incident is about a disciple of a very famous Guru who had great love for his master and served him implicitly. It is a perfect example of the transformation of a disciple through Grace of the Guru.
Adi Shankara is one of the greatest Gurus of India. He is regarded as a minor incarnation of Lord Shiva. Adi Shankara was born in order to revamp Hindu Philosophy and Religion. Shankara had four disciples - Sureswara Acharya, Padmapada, Hastamalaka and Trotakacharya. This is the story of Padmapada.
Padmapada’s original name was Sadananda. He was the first disciple of Shankara. He was a great Guru Bhatka. He was very loyal and faithful to the Guru and extremely obedient. He did all the chores given to him with a smiling face. As compared to the other disciples, he was rather intellectually dull. The other disciples made fun of him and sometimes made him do their share of work too. But he bore it all willingly and cheerfully. Shankara was aware of all the happenings and knew that the others teased and tormented Sadananda. He waited for the right opportunity to teach others the true worth of his obedient student and blessings of willing Guru Seva (service to the Guru)
Once, Shankara and his group camped at the banks of the River Ganges. Sadananda as usual was doing chores. He had finished washing the clothes of the Guru on the other side of the river bank. He had put them out to dry and was waiting to gather the dry clothes and bring them back to the Guru. Suddenly there was a flood and the waters rose overflowing the banks of the river. Shankara was worried about Sadananda. He called out to him to come back at once. Immediately Sadananda picked up the dried clothes and ran on the waters of the river. He did not notice that the waters had risen in the river. When he ran over the waters of the Ganges at the command of his Guru, he did not think of anything but his Guru’s call. As he took a step, a lotus rose from bottom of the waters to support his feet. His attention was so much focussed on his Guru that he did not feel the touch and support of the lotuses beneath his feet. He crossed the river safely and reached his Guru. All those who watched this rare feat of devotion and love to Guru were wonderstruck at the miracle which had just occurred.
When Sadananda offered pranams to his Guru and gave him the dried clothes, the Guru asked him how he crossed the flooded river. Sadananda did not even turn to look at the lotuses in the water. He replied that just taking the name of the Guru helped him to cross the ocean of samsara or material world. Crossing a mere river was easy! Then Shankara showed him the lotuses which had sprung up to support his feet as he had walked on the waters. Shankara blessed him and renamed him Padmapada. (Padma means lotus, Pada means feet). The blessings of the Guru flooded Padmapada with divine knowledge and wisdom. The transformation in him was astounding. He became the cleverest disciple of Shankara. He wrote a great treatise called ‘Prajanam Brahma’ meaning Brahman is knowledge. He was appointed head of Govardhana Matha in East of India.
Implicit obedience to Guru and cheerfully doing seva or service to Guru brought blessings to the dull Sadananda and he became Padmapada. The ParamGuru is truly greater than the ParasMani or Philosopher’s stone. The Philosopher’s Stone turns iron and lead into gold. But its touch cannot create another Philosopher’s stone. The Guru is greater than the Philosopher’s Stone as he transfers his own powers and qualities to the disciple and creates a wise knowledgeable man.
