Prasnottari of Sri Sankaracharya

Divine Life Society Publication: How To Get Vairagya by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda

Q. 1. Who is really enslaved?
A. One who is attached to the objects of the senses.

Q. 2. What is freedom (or liberation)?
A. Non-attachment to worldly objects.

Q. 3. What is the most horrible hell?
A. Your own body.

Q. 4. What is the path to heaven?
A. The total annihilation of all desires.

Q. 5. What is the gate to hell?
A. Woman.

Q. 6. What leads to heaven?
A. Non-violence or harmlessness to all creatures.

Q.7. Who are the enemies?
A. Our own Indriyas. They are our friends when subjugated.

Q. 8. Who is really poor?
A. One who has many desires.

Q. 9. Who is rich?
A. He who has full contentment.

Q. 10. What is nectar?
A. Delightful desirelessness.

Q. 11. What is the real betters?
A. Egoistic sense of "mineness" and "thineness."

Q. 12. What is that which intoxicates as if it were wine?
A. A woman.

Q. 13. Who is the most blind?
A. One actuated by lust.

Q. 14. What is the deadliest of all poisons?
A. All sensual enjoyments.

Q. 15. Who is miserable for ever?
A. He who is attached to worldly enjoyments.

Q.16. What is beyond the reach of everybody's knowledge?
A. A woman's heart and her doings.

Q. 17. Who is a beast?
A. One without knowledge.

Q. 18. Whose company should we shun off?
A. The company of the fools, the mean minded, the wicked and the sinful.

Q. 19. What is at the root of degradation?
A. Begging.

Q. 20. What is at the root of becoming great?
A. Never to beg.

Q. 21. Who is really born?
A. He who has no birth again.

Q. 22. Who is really dead?
A. One who is not to die again.

Q. 23. Who is the greatest of all enemies?
A. Kama (desire), anger, untruth, greed and craving.

Q. 24. Who is not gratified by (all) objects of (enjoyment)?
A. Desire (lust).

Q. 25. What is at the root of all miseries?
A. The sense of "mineness" or I-ness."

Q. 26. Who are the real dacoits?
A. Evil desires.

Q. 27. Who is the beast of all beasts?
A. One who does not fulfil his duties and has no knowledge of the Self.

Q. 28. What is fleeting like-lightning?
A. Wealth, youth and life.

Q. 29. What should be constantly thought of?
A. The illusory nature of the universe and the existence of Brahman.

Q. 30. What is real action?
A. That which is pleasing to Lord Krishna.

Excerpts from: Prasnottari of Sri Sankaracharya - How To Get Vairagya by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda