Ego is destroyed after three croaks

 

One day as I was on my way I heard a bullfrog croaking. I though it must have been seized by a snake. After sometime as I was coming back, I could still hear its terrified croaking. I looked to see what was the matter, and found that a water snake had seized it. The snake could neither swallow it nor give it up. So there was no end to the frog's suffering. I thought that it had been seized by a cobra it would have been silenced after three croaks at the most. As it was only a water-snake, both of them had to go through this agony.

A man's ego is destroyed after three croaks, as it were, if he gets into the clutches of a real teacher. But if the teacher is an 'unripe' one, then both the teacher and the disciples undergo endless suffering. The disciple cannot get rid either of his ego or of the shackles of the world. If a disciple falls into the clutches of an incompetent teacher, he does not attain liberation. 

[Sri Ramakrishan]