When Do a Teacher and Student Become Enemies of Each Other?

Uttanka's story we have been seeing.
How his Guru Veda became happy with him, seeing his intelligence.
Uttanka told his Guruji that his education was successful because the Guru was not selfish, he himself was not selfish.
The Guru and shishya develop mutual respect, concern and affection.
Even teaching, if selfish interests are involved, then eventually the teacher and student would end up being enemies of each other.
Whatever be the reason, the teacher may think that the student will become a competitor, the student may think that the teacher didn't teach properly.

This is the meaning of the part in the mantra saha na vavatu
Maa vidvishavahai – let us, the guru and shishya, not dislike each other, have enmity towards each other.
This is a clear possibility. That is why in the mantra itself it is there.
The teacher and student becoming enemies of each other at the end of the studies is a reality in the world.
That's why the guru and shishya are together praying – maa vidvishavahai.
But for this to happen, both should not be selfish. And the method of teaching, the whole process, should be in accordance with dharma.

The western culture is not bothered about all these. Their only focus is only on what do I get out of it.
For them, the teacher is an employee who does a job and gets paid for it.
This is not our culture. For us, teacher is God.
Gururbrahma.
We have to regain these values and bring them back to the society.
Then only the present madness, rat race, chaos will end.

Uttanka told his Guruji, I want to offer you a dakshina before I leave.
What can I give you?
Guruji said, oh I can't think about anything.
I can't think about anything that I need.
Stay here for some more time.
Uttanka continued to stay in the ashrama.

After some time he again reminded Guruji.
He said, do one thing, go and ask your guru patni whether she needs anything.
If she wants something, then get it.

So Uttanka went and asked the guru patni.
Mother, the status of guru patni is that of mother. Ok.
Mother, Guruji has given me permission to go back home.
I want to offer a proper guru dakshina before I go.
He told me to ask you. If I don't offer a dakshina, my runa, my debt towards the guru, for all the trouble that you both have taken for me, taking care of me as your own son all these years, feeding me, giving me a place to stay with you, that debt will not clear.
Please tell me what I can get for you.

She said, King Paushya's queen, she wears a special pair of kundalas, ear ornaments.
Go, request her and get them for me.
A vrata called punyaka is coming up on the fourth day from today.
If possible, I want to wear those ornaments while I am serving food to noble people on that day.

Uttanka set out towards Paushya's palace.
On the way he saw a man, a big man seated on a big bull.
The man, as soon as he saw Uttanka, said,
Eat the dung of this cow and drink its urine.
Uttanka hesitated.
The man said, don't worry, your guru has also done the same.
Upon hearing this, Uttanka ate the dung and drank the urine of the bull.

Now there are some mysteries here. You will see more of them as we proceed.
But we will see their significance only at the end.
Uttanka himself would ask his Guruji the significance of all these after he returns.
That time we will see.

Now, after he consumed the bull's dung and urine...
After you take anything, you have to do achamana, right?
To purify yourself.
Otherwise you will be ucchishta, impure.

Uttanka was in a hurry, because he had to get the kundalas and return before the vrata of guru patni.
So he did achamana, standing, and left in a hurry.

He reached the palace. Paushya, knowing that he is shishya of Veda, welcomed him with respect.
Uttanka told him what he had come for.
Paushya said, you please go inside and ask the queen yourself.

He went inside the palace, but the queen was not there.
Uttanka came out agitated.
This is not right, the queen is not there.
Are you playing some joke with me?

Paushya thought for a while and said,
Are you impure by any chance? My wife is a pativrata.
She will not be visible to those who are impure.
Are you sure you are not impure?

Uttanka said, oh, after consuming something on the way, I did achamana standing.
This is a violation of the principle.
Achamana done standing is as good as it is not done.
That means I am impure, ucchishta.
So, let me purify myself.

Uttanka purified himself following proper vidhi of achamana.

What is this vidhi for achamana?
Mahabharata gives:

Essentially —
You should be seated while doing achamanam.
You should be facing east.
Here also, if you are doing achamanam as part of your evening Sandhya Vandanam, you should be facing north because your back should not be towards the sun while doing any dharmic act.
Before sitting for achamanam itself, you should wash your feet, arms and mouth.

The water used for achamanam — it should not be noisy, meaning you should not pick it up from a noisy source like a waterfall. It should not have bubbles or froth. It should not be hot or even warm.

You have to sip three times. How much to sip?
As much as it would reach up to the middle of your chest, inside. All three times.

Then, with the base of your thumb of the right hand, touch water and wipe your mouth twice with the lips curved inside, meaning you should not be wiping the lips. The lips should be curved inside the mouth. If you touch the lips, then it is again impure because there will be drops of saliva on the lips.

Then with your fingers which are wet — that means you have to touch water with the fingers and then do this —
With the fingers touch the indriyas, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, so that they are also purified. Not just jnanendriyas, the karmendriyas also.

As I said, there can be some variations here depending on the system that you are following.
This is what Mahabharata says.

If you are familiar with achamana and do achamana, you can now check for yourself and see how many mistakes you could be making while doing achamana.

There are more detailed instructions given, like —
Those who do this touching with the 12 names — Keshava, Narayana...
If you see, when you do this, you would have touched all your ten indriyas.
When you touch nabhi it is for pada, payu and upastha.

Follow your sutra, or at least what Mahabharata says.

This is the reason I always say Mahabharata is not just about Pandavas, Kauravas and the battle of Kurukshetra.

Ramaswamy Sastry and Vighnesh Ghanapaathi