Is submissive hearing not a blind following?

Submissive hearing does not mean blind following. It simply means that we are hearing with a sincere attempt to try to understand what the spiritual master is trying to say. If his words don’t make sense to us, we can continue inquiring until we are satisfied.  This is the Vedic system.  It is neither challenging nor blind following. It is simply to be open-minded.

A challenging mood is not open-minded rather it is close-minded attitude. Person with challenging mood has already assumed that another is wrong and he doesn’t pay any attention to what that person is trying to explain.

In this regard there is beautiful story. Once there was one person who approached a guru and guru was trying to explain various things to this person. But this person was not allowing the guru to speak and he himself was telling more and more things. Then guru told him to hold a glass and start pouring hot milk into it. He kept on pouring until hot milk started falling on the hand of this person. Person was really upset by this behavior of guru. And guru explained to him, your position is like this only you are already full with so many things that whatever I am trying to tell you that is not going inside and just coming out.

So if we want to learn something from guru then open-mindedness is very much needed where we at least allow ourselves to hear what another person is saying and then think, does it make sense?