The different levels of disciples' mind

Best disciple does not need to be told. Sattva is high. Automatically divines what is to be done and not done.

Middling disciple cannot divine on own owing to higher levels of rajas and tamas. But on being told the middling disciple will listen and adopt the recommended behavior and desist from that which is not recommended.

However the lowest order of disciple, even on being explicitly told what not to do and what to do, cannot grasp and follow the teaching. For such disciples the proportion of tamas is too high for spiritual instruction.

Those minds must get their instruction in the external world and seem to undergo countless sufferings before wisdom dawns. Their behavior is on account of dullness of the intellect: manda buddhi. For such ones, even if they are in Shiva's presence they cannot grasp the instruction.

The entire variety of such minds may even be encountered in different experiences that the sAdhaka undergoes. The purpose of this experience is to remain steadfast in the Self and to not be moved by the mAyA of the apparent suffering of the bodily embodiment's family members and others.

Remember mAtA ca pArvati etc and also the mAyA sItA in rAmAyaNa.

Eventually it is seen that the minds of the various levels of disciples are only within oneself. The same mind having taken different bodies in the past also went through such experiences: rejecting Guru and then slowly accepting etc. Cf SrI KRShNa in BG "I know all my previous births but you do not."

All these are only in the Self AtmA as pure Consciousness and in fact there is nothing but the Self AtmA the true I. Knowing so the unreal game can play on. Apparent pain is necessary for apparent growth.