50 Answers by Sri Adi Shankara
Adi Shankaracharya, is an 8th-century Indian philosopher who is renowned for establishing the Advaita Vedanta school of thought and authoring numerous texts on it. His “Prashnottara Ratna Malika,” or “Garland of Questions and Answers,” has 67 verses in the form of Questions and Answers that give clear direction to live in a right way.
LET US SEE 50 VERSES FROM THEM:
(1) What is pleasant?
Dharma.
(2) What is poison?
Disrespecting the advice of elders.
(3) What causes intoxication like alcohol?
Attachment.
(4) Who are thieves?
Things that distract the senses.
(5) Who is the enemy?
Laziness.
(6) What is everyone afraid of?
Death.
(7) Who is blinder than a blind man?
One who has more desires.
(8) Who is a demon?
One who does not let the mind go on a bad path, but suppresses it.
(9) What is the source of value?
Not asking anything from anyone.
(10) What is sorrow?
Being without satisfaction.
(11) What can be called a high life?
Living without understanding sins.
(12) What are the things that are impermanent like water on a lotus leaf?
Youth, wealth, life, etc.
(13) Who are those who give pleasure to others like the rays of the moon?
Good people.
(14) What is happiness?
To live without attachment after sacrificing everything.
(15) What gives pleasure?
The friendship of good-hearted people.
(16) What is equal to death?
Wickedness.
(17) What can be described as priceless?
Help given late.
(18) What haunts until death?
Sin committed in secret.
(19) Who is difficult to guide?
The wicked, those who are always in doubt, those who wander in sorrow, the ungrateful… all of them!
(20) Who is a saint?
One who has good conduct.
(21) Who can conquer the world?
By one who is truthful and patient.
(22) Who do the gods worship?
One who is merciful to all.
(23) Who is deaf?
One who does not hear good things.
(24) Who is dumb?
One who does not know how to say the right and pleasant words at the right time.
(25) Who is a friend?
The one who prevents a person who goes on the path of sin .
(26) Who will not face accidents?
The one who listens to the words of the elders and walks modestly.
(27) What is most beneficial?
It is dharma, righteousness.
(28) Who is the clean person?
He whose mind is pure.
(29) Who is truly intelligent?
One who is endowed with the power of discrimination.
(30) What is an ideal life?
It is a life which stands above all criticism.
(31) What is inertness?
It consists in not practising what one has learnt.
(32) Who is vigilant?
One who has the power of discrimination.
(33) What is sleep?
It is complete ignorance one’s predicament (that one is involved in Samsara)
(34) What leads to disappointment?
Inordinate self-estimation.
(35) What bestows happiness?
Friendship with the virtuous.
(36) Who is the most skillful one in destroying every form of sorrow?
One who has renounced in all respects.
(37) What is a gift?
That which is presented unasked.
(38) Who is one’s true well-wisher?
He who wards one away from committing sins.
(39) What is the real decoration that one can have?
A blameless character.
(40) What embellishes one’s speech?
Truthfulness.
(41) What should a man’s earnings consist of?
In knowledge, wealth, strength, fame and holiness.
(42) What destroys one’s merits entirely?
Greed.
(43) What is one’s enemy?
Lust and Jealousy
(44) Who gives strength to a Sadhu?
God.
(45) Who is a Sadhu?
One who is ever satisfied.
(46) What is one’s Fate?
One’s meritorious actions.
(47) Who is to be identified as one with meritorious actions to his credit?
He who has the approval and admiration of virtuous men.
(48) Who is the God of Maya?
The Supreme Being
(49) What is true magic (Indrajala)?
This ever-changing universe.
(50) What resembles a dream experience?
The activities of waking life.
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