The term upadesha is of great significance in Hinduism and Sri Ramana Maharshi explains it.
The term ‘upadesha’ literally means restoring an object nearest to its true and proper place.
The term ‘upadesha’ literally means restoring an object nearest to its true and proper place.
The mind of the disciple having become differentiated from
its true and primal state of Pure Being, or the Self, which the scriptures
describe as Sat Chit Ananda, Being Consciousness Bliss, slips away from it and,
assuming the form of thought, ever runs after the objects of sense
gratification.
Thus, the mind gets buffeted and battered by the
vicissitudes of life and becomes weak and dispirited.
Now, Upadesa, or spiritual instruction, consists in the
Master restoring the mind of the disciple to its primal state and effectively
preventing it from slipping away from the state of Pure Being, of absolute
identity with the Self, or, in other words, the spiritual Being of the Master.
The term ‘upadesa’ may also be understood as presenting an
apparently distant object to one’s near view; i.e., it consists in the Master
showing to the disciple, as immediate and identical with the disciple, that
which he has been considering (viz., the Self, or Absolute) as distant and
different from himself.