In the traditional Gurukula way of teaching or modern way of teaching, the teacher has always held a respected and an important position in the students’ life.To define knowledge in conservative way - To attain and gain knowledge the only means one can find is the “Guru” or teacher. Where a person possesses the wealth of knowledge and is generous enough to share that wealth with the society, the place becomes a Gurukula on its own. A person with penchant for knowledge has to reside at the feet of Guru and gain knowledge. He should have the courtesy to stretch his arms in front of the Guru for knowledge. One has to submit himself to the Guru for knowledge. Purandara Dasa (one of the leads in Dasa Sahitya) has said – “You have to be a slave of your Guru to attain salvation” (ಗುರುವಿನ ಗುಲಾಮನಾಗುವ ತನಕ ದೊರೆಯದಣ್ಣ ಮುಕುತಿ).
Shishunala Shareef Saheb, one of the Sufi Saints from Karnataka, says, “There are 2 kinds of Gurus in our life. The first Guru is materialistic and the other is spiritual Guru. The teaching you get from first is – if you subtract 3 by 9 the answer is 6 and according to the latter say it’s 0.”
The gist is very simple and interesting. Kama (fleshliness), Krodha (Anger), Mada (Pride), Matsara (Jealous), Moha (Fascination) and Lobha (Greed) which are called Ari-Shadwarga or 6 enemies of human. And these 3 are an outcome of 3 materialistic things – Woman, Money and Wealth. Out of these 9 if we beat the latter 3 the remaining 6 would disappear from our life on their own.
That said, the Spiritual Guru would help you build the divine spirits of Love, patience, forgiveness, dedication to work, being altruistic to lead a happy and peaceful life.
Next to Parents, it’s the Guru who has the most important and respectable place in everyone’s life. Once a child is born, it’s the duty of the parents to take care of that Kid till it grows up to youth. But, a major responsibility would lie on Guru’s shoulder to make that young bud into respectful, responsible citizen of the World.
गुरुब्रह्म गुरुर्विष्णो गुरुर्देवो महेश्वरा
गुरु साक्षात परब्रह्म तस्मैश्री गुरुवे नमः ॥
Guru is considered as representative of the Trimurtis, namely, Brahma (The Creator), Vishnu (The Caretaker) and Shiva (the Destructor) – creates Divine Thoughts in the minds of his students, takes care of his students and ensures that they take the right way of living life, and destructs the ignorance, bad habits and thoughts from Students mind and ensures that his student is a gift to his State, Country or to the World.
“आनो भद्राः कृतवोयन्तु विश्वतः”– which means we should let the superior thoughts to flow from all around the World. We should have broad and open mind to inherit the knowledge from any person, from any corner of this world at any point of time. Adi Shanakaracharya says – “It does not matter if the person who has knowledge is a Brahman or chandal. He becomes a guru only if he has the will to share it and you have the will to earn it.”
In the Vedic period, the Guru used to pray आनो ब्रह्मचरिभ्य स्वाहा॥ - where they pray to the God to send good students to him to share his knowledge. They would feel proud if the Shishya (Student) is able to challenge the Guru and beat him in the challenge (शिष्याद इच्छेत् पराजयं ॥)
If you have the eyes to see it, the entire world and the nature we live in themselves are the biggest Gurus. You learn almost or everything from the Mother Nature. The Mountains teach us stability; the Mother Earth – Patience; from the Sun, the Stars, the rivers, the Cow (गोमाता) and the trees, we learn benevolence; Sobriety from the Oceans; Ants teach us the art of Savings and unity; loyalty and satiety from the Dog – In this manner we learn the values of human life from animate and inanimate things around us. In this regard the world is a huge University with infinite amount of knowledge in it and the nature is an ideal of all Gurus. Next to nature the Books are the greatest Guru for anyone who admits it.
On the occasion of Teacher’s Day – I would like to dedicate this article to all the teachers of India who has shouldered the responsibility of building the future of a vibrant and glorious country. This is a tribute to your great work and my sincere thanks to you all.
