---
type: Concept
bundle: bhakti-marga
bundle_version: "0.4.0"
id: shishya
title: "Śiṣya — The Qualified Disciple"
iast: "śiṣya"
devanagari: "शिष्य"
description: "The disciple qualified by trust, service, and receptivity to receive transmission. Not a student, not a pupil, not a follower, not a customer."
darshana:
  - Bhakti (Vaiṣṇava Vedānta)
  - Advaita Vedānta
school_scope: "Pan-traditional; the correlate of guru. Qualification (adhikāra) is by character and receptivity, not by fee or enrollment."
text_source: "Bhagavad Gītā 4.34; Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.2.12-13; Guru Gītā"
tags:
  - shishya
  - disciple
  - adhikara
  - tier-2
not:
  - term: "student"
    why: "a student enrolls to acquire knowledge of a subject and may remain unchanged as a person; the śiṣya enters a transforming relationship of discipline and service whose aim is the remaking of the disciple, not the accumulation of information"
    instead: "Render śiṣya as disciple; not as student."
  - term: "pupil"
    why: "'pupil' denotes a learner in a classroom hierarchy; the śiṣya's bond with the guru is reverential and lifelong, structured by śraddhā and sevā, not by curriculum and grade"
  - term: "follower"
    why: "a follower adheres to a figure or movement, often passively or from a distance; the śiṣya is in a close, demanding, reciprocal relationship requiring active service, humility, and inner work, not mere allegiance"
  - term: "customer"
    why: "a customer pays for a service and is owed delivery; the śiṣya offers service and surrender and receives grace, an inversion of the transactional relation; spiritual transmission is not a purchasable good"
related:
  - /concepts/guru.md
  - /concepts/guru-shishya-parampara.md
  - /concepts/seva.md
  - /concepts/shraddha.md
timestamp: "2026-06-25"
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Śiṣya — शिष्य

**Not:** student, pupil, follower, customer

The śiṣya is the disciple: not anyone who studies under a teacher, but one who has become *fit* to receive transmission through trust, service, humility, and receptivity. Guru and śiṣya are correlative terms; the qualification of the disciple is as essential to transmission as the realization of the teacher.

## Etymology

From the root √*śās* — to instruct, to discipline, to govern. *Śiṣya* is the gerundive: "one who is to be disciplined / instructed," one fit for the śāsana. Embedded in the word is that the disciple is *to be shaped* — the śiṣya is not a buyer of knowledge but raw material offered to be worked. The same root yields *śāsana* (teaching, governance) and *śiṣṭa* (the cultivated, the disciplined).

## Adhikāra: The Disciple's Qualification

The tradition is exacting about who is ready. The Gītā (4.34) names the means of approach: "know that by humble reverence (praṇipāta), by inquiry (paripraśna), and by service (sevā); the wise who have seen the truth will instruct you." Three qualifications follow: humility, sincere questioning, and service. The Upaniṣadic prerequisites add *śraddhā* (trust) and dispassion. The classical fourfold qualification for Vedānta — discernment, dispassion, the sixfold inner discipline, and the yearning for liberation (mumukṣutva) — describes the same readiness. A śiṣya is made, not enrolled.

## Why the Substitutes Fail

"Student" and "pupil" keep the relationship in the classroom, where the learner can stay personally untouched. "Follower" makes the disciple a distant adherent rather than an intimate, serving participant. "Customer" is the most distorting: it reverses the flow. The customer pays and is owed; the śiṣya *serves* and *receives grace*. The disciple gives labor, humility, and trust, and what returns is not a delivered product but a transmission that cannot be bought.

## Cross-References
- [Guru](guru.md) — the correlative term; the guru and śiṣya define each other
- [Guru-Śiṣya Paramparā](guru-shishya-parampara.md) — today's śiṣya becomes tomorrow's link in the lineage
- [Sevā](seva.md) — service is the disciple's primary mode of qualification and learning
- [Śraddhā](shraddha.md) — trust in the guru is the first requirement of discipleship

## Audience Metaphor

The difference between a student and a śiṣya is the difference between auditing a course and being an apprentice in a master craftsperson's workshop. The auditor attends, takes notes, and leaves unchanged, owing nothing but attention. The apprentice sweeps the floor, mixes the materials, serves the master for years, and is slowly remade into someone who can do the work from the inside. Apprenticeship is not bought with tuition; it is earned with service and trust. The śiṣya is the apprentice of the spirit, and the workshop is the disciple's own life.

## Citations

1. [Bhagavad Gītā](/references/bhagavad-gita.md) 4.34 — the means of approaching a teacher: humble reverence, inquiry, and service
2. [Guru Gītā](/references/guru-gita.md) — the disciple's reverence and service as the condition of receiving the guru's grace
3. [Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad](/references/shvetashvatara-upanishad.md) 6.23 — the disciple's parā bhakti for guru and God as the condition of realization
