Namaste everyone!
With greatest pleasure I extend my heartfelt gratitude to every teachers around the world.
World cannot be imagined without teachers presence. They are the source of education which flows eternal like a river.
If someone asks me where god dwells, promptly I would point out my finger to the teacher, the God I’ve seen and met in this life. I am forever grateful for their selfless love and service. And this blog is here just because of them.
It is nostalgic to remember the things of school days, how excited we used to become when teacher’s day was in the next flip of calendar. Like a great professional we busied ourselves in making handmade cards for our teachers. With everything we got and could bring out of our mind, we used to organise a small program. All we wanted was to see the happiness brimming in the teachers face. And luckily we were able to do so. Those memories are like long lost dreams, which sometimes pop up from inside and starts playing a reels in front of my eyes.
My wonderful experience with teachers who were and is with me from nursery school to college is something i wanted to highlight in my life.
The teachers have always been more than my parents. I can’t forget them standing beside me, always supporting and inspiring. May be it is their blessings which today also shields me from every dark shade of the world. This life ,this me, is only because of those teachers who mentored and guided throughout my life. I am more than grateful to their service and the selfless love and care. Teachers are the wonderful gift that universe have ever given to human kind.
Today on this special occasion i am taking my pledge to write a little whatever we know about Teacher and Student of India.
Aristotle wrote “ Those who educate children are more to be honoured than their parents because these give them life but those the art of living well”
Nowhere in this world had the implications of the statement better implemented than in Ancient India. India is solitary country in the world where greater importance is attached to the teacher. In India, a great teacher is the spiritual and intellectual father and is more revered than one’s own parents. Without a teacher no education is possible. A teacher is regarded as the Guru- a friend, a philosopher and a guide.
Truth is considered the highest ideal and the Gurus show the student the path to the truth.
The term “Guru” actually means “One who dispels the darkness and knowledge with light.” So it was the responsibility of teachers to lead the students from darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge. In ancient times, continuous transmission of the store of knowledge was possible only through the instrumentality of the teacher alone as there was no printed text books. The teacher was the Alma Mater, he himself was the institution. He was spiritual father and held morally responsible for the drawbacks of student. The spiritual relationship between teacher and student in ancient India was personal, intimate and cordial. The student had no financial relation with Guru, the relation that existed between them were devoid of worldly connection. A great emphasis was laid on moral qualification of the students in as much as instruction in sacred texts was a moral affair. The teacher was to teach all that he knew to his students. He was to teach nothing partially, keep nothing secret, and hold nothing back to maintain his superiority. The Gurus had to look after every type of education of the students —physical, mental and moral. The relations between the two were, therefore, naturally more or less filial in character. A teacher should regard his student as his own son. Owing to the filial conception of the teacher-pupil relationship, extra academic duties of the teacher were numerous.
Perhaps our discussion will be incomplete if we do not mention some of the onerous (burdensome) duties of a student to their teachers. The student was to hold his teacher in deep reverence. His conduct must be in conformity with the rules of decorum and good manners. If the teacher walked, the student was to walk after him. He must get up very early in the morning and salute his teacher by touching his feet. The cordial relation that existed between the teacher and the student continued also in their afterlife. A student was free even after the completion of his regular courses in the house of his teacher to meet him for any advice and guidance in after life. A studentship in ancient India was thus a life-long process.It was an unending development of the personality of the student in close contact with the Guru. A development of the relation between the teacher and the student was the exaltation of the teacher to such a position of reverence that he was worshipped by his students l. The student felt genuine “bhakti” for the “Guru”. The students was taught to worship his guru as God.
This was wonderful history of teachers and students in India. I am always intrigued by those interesting things which makes our country more beautiful and captivating.
But today we often see the educational sectors surcharged with gross and violent indiscipline manifesting from various forms. We are awfully lacking the sacred relationship between teacher and pupil. I know, no one wants to see our culture and history being uprooted from the ground. If we can practice so many outrageous things from ancient period why can’t we bring out the good things instead and change the world insiders out?
We can still avoid the unwelcoming tendency to enter our educational system and our life as whole by practising high ideal like teacher- pupil relationships which prevailed in ancient times.
Thank you for reading once again.
Happy Teacher's Day! 🌸
