From Guru to God: The role of Teachers

Recently, I received a request to address a group of students from Cascade Family Learning Society, Besant Nagar. The topic we agreed upon was on the role played by teachers – our Gurus in the life of students. There were about 25 children in the age group of 8 to 14 years.

Though neither an accomplished orator nor an expert in the subject, I had agreed to this request as I consider myself a perpetual learner. And indeed it was a great learning experience for me.

Here is an excerpt what I spoke on that day:

• Our Sastras consider each of us having a set of 5 parents. Apart from our genetic parents, we have to consider the following as our parents as well namely, those who provide us food/sustenance, those who drive away fear from our minds, those who give us education and those who perform rituals for us. By extension, all our teachers will be equivalent to our parents.
• The word ‘Guru’ is made of two letters ‘Gu’ and ‘Ru’ with ‘Gu’ meaning darkness and ‘Ru’ indicating the dispelling of it. Thus a teacher is someone who dispels darkness from our minds through education.
• The saying ‘Matha Pitha Guru Dheivam‘ not only means that the first three are equivalent to God, but also that each one points us to the next one in the series. Thus Matha (mother) leads us to our Pitha (father), father to Guru (teacher), and the teacher leads us to God. So only through him/her we can realize God. In Vaishnavic tradition, there is a story of ant that wants to jump over to another hillock from the one it stands currently. Upon its inability, it chances upon a lion which takes the ant on its back and crosses over. The ant is us in this case and the lion is analogous to our teachers. Only teachers can help us jump the knowledge-gap (agnana) and reach the other side.
• Even Gods prefer the role of teachers as indicated in many examples. The sloka ‘Gurur Brahma Gurur Vishnuhu.. ‘ is an example. Lord Krishna took the role of a teacher and advised Arjuna (and all of us) through his work Bhagavadh Gita and got the name ‘Gitacharyan’. Similarly Lord Shanmugha became a teacher for his own father Lord Shiva and advised him of the meaning of Pranava (‘OM’). Also, Lord Krishna underwent Gurukulam under the tutelage of sage Santhipani and completed it with his Gurudakshina of handing over his lost son. This clearly indicates that even Gods respected their teachers.
• Finally, we all consider the medical profession as the noble profession of all as doctors help alleviate the diseases and restore the well-being of all people. In my humble opinion, teaching position is even nobler than that (I hope the doctors agree) because even doctors are created by the efforts of teachers only.

I enjoyed the session very much as I observed that the students were paying rapt attention to all that was being said. They were very responsive, knowledgeable and well-behaved as well. Their pointed questions kept me going. It was a refreshing change for me as I found out that value education is ‘valued’ more when competitiveness is promoted everywhere these days. I was impressed by Smt. Vidya Shankar who is the founder of this school. The way she wants her children to be inquisitive, self-sufficient and spiritual is clearly visible in her demeanor. I wish her, the staff and the students of the school all success and my prayers are with the school. I wish we see more such schools that promote Values as guided by Sanathana Dharma.