the disciple
mythological figure · 3 works · 3 mentions · 6 anchored passages
world-weary [disciple]
in the texts
Paramārthasāra
The unnamed questioner who, tormented by the cycle of birth and death, asks the teacher about the highest reality.
Bewildered and tossed about by the wheel of suffering that runs from dwelling in the womb to the agony of death, the disciple asked the Blessed One, Ādhāra, about the paramārtha (the supreme/highest reality or goal).
Paramārthasāra
The unnamed interlocutor whose question to his teacher initiates and frames the entire discourse.
Beholding the world sunk in the ocean of dwelling in the womb-chamber, of coming-to-be, birth, old age, death, and separation [from loved ones], the disciple, with hands folded, spoke to his teacher.
the {{brahman|the absolute, the non-dual ground of being}} which, [reflected as] residing in the intellect, is apprehended — that, O disciple, is what is to be understood.
'For one who knows the distinction between the {{guṇa|the three qualities of nature}}s and the {{puruṣa|the conscious principle, contrasted with prakṛti}}, merit and demerit are not binding' — by such words [of the tradition] declared before, tell me, [then,] of {{prakṛti / mūlaprakṛti|primal nature}} and {{puruṣa|the conscious self}}.
Sāṃkhyatattvavivecana
An unnamed disciple who questions the sage about suffering and the means to liberation, framing the treatise as instruction.
Thus questioned, the sage—a treasury of compassion—spoke to the world-weary [disciple]:
[A disciple asks: