- With these preliminary remarks, we shall study the text "I bow at the lotus feet of the illustrious Guru Sanakaranandabwhose sole function is to eliminate the alligator known as the Great Delusion with all its offschoots"
- The author here pays his obeisance to his Guru Sankarananda, Commentators read into this word a reference to God Sankara who is ever blissful and to Sri Sankara Bhagavadpadacharya
- And also to the authors predecessor and Asrama Guru Vidya Theertha who was certainly a 'doer of Good'. Though all these interpretations are possible
- it will be sufficient if we take the word to signify a Guru bearing the name of Sankarananda. It is well known that Sri Vidyaranya was a very learned scholar even before he approached Vidya Theertha for Sanyasa
- and it is not improbable that he learnt the tenets of the Advaita philosophy from one called Sankarananda long before initiation by Vidya Tirtha or even after initiation just to have a revision of what he already knew
- It is only proper that he should give expression to his gratitude to that Guru in a treatise where he intended to expound those tenets
- Anyhow for the proper understanding of the teachings here, it is quite unnecessary to enquire into or decide who that Sankarananda was
- The sole function of a Guru is to eradicate the delusion under which the disciple is suffering and as the result of which he is subjected to pain and pleasure, birth and death and so on
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