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 ॥