NICE EDIFYING STORY FROM #"VAISNAVISM OF SAMKARADEVA AND RAMANUJA" BY H.V. SREENIVASA MURTHY#:
"One who is treading the path of spiritual attainment should be humble and consider himself the lowliest of the lowly.
SamkaraDeva is of the opinion that the psychic ego is not an enduring self, but it is one of the greatest barriers of religious culture. This again has been very well expressed in an anecdote.
"One day SamkaraDeva asked his disciple Madhavadeva to fetch him a human beast (नरपशु - "narapashu" means "brute in human form" in Sanskrit). Having agreed to bring one, Madhavadeva went in search of it, but in vain.
He took himself to be a real human beast and offered himself to SamkaraDeva saying, “Oh! merciful Master, I find none but myself as a human beast. Be graceful to accept my offer.”
This action of Madhavadeva made a deep impression on Samkaradeva who asked all his disciples to emulate the example of Madhavadeva".
Cited from
BY H.V. SREENIVASA MURTHY#, page 189
