Some Thoughts As Over Teacher’s day

Its Sep 6^th the world and her husband have been wishing ‘happy Teachers day’ in every group that is in.

Believe me it is difficult to refrain from peer pressure.  Over that was going through the Day2 by Anujj Mehta on information- knowledge and wisdom.He conducts a program on automating your business /service. I remembered something very similar that my teacher in standard 10 had told us. I have it documented in my post ‘The Mathemagician” may his soul rest in peace.

At age of 56 I can say, I have come across informants, teachers, mentors  so on and so forth. Of course there are various kinds of teachers, like I listed in one of my nasty moods in the post “The Teacher”

One of my greatest teachers has been a 5yr. Old who was part of the group that performed at Puttaparthi on Ashad ekadashi for Baba’s birthday. Of the Navavidha Bhakti, she was to represent ‘atmanivadhane’ a concept where there is no duality it is total surrender to the divine. While I was grappling with trying to convey this she gave me a nod and said, ‘Didi, I have to think that I’m not there, because everything is Baba.” her acceptance of this reality was so humbling.

But some flashes do happen like a teacher of mine telling me, that every teacher gives 50% of their knowledge and it’s for the student to draw out 25% but the crucial 25% is what the student does with it. 

The Advaita text Viveka chudamani has an entire conversation about the adept and the teacher.

Means Of Wisdom

Ato vimuktyai prayateta vidvan,samnyastabahyarthakukhapprahsan

Santam,mahatma sampetya kesikam tenopadistarthasamhitama(8)

In the 8-13 verse of Viveka Chudamani, Sri Adi Shankaracharya talks about the path self realization.

He says self realization is not a casual jaunt. An adept has to be a seeker on a quest. His teacher has to be a ‘Santam’. The word Sant has come to mean a sanyasi, but a Sant is person who is connected to his pure conscious. The teacher should also be a Mahanta or a person who has the intellect to be open and accept things without being judgemental.

There could people with amazing knowledge and experience, people who can help others realize the self, but they may not be reachable. Then there could be people who could in addition to the knowledge, and experience is accessible but they could be challenged when it comes to communication. so the ideal teacher should be ‘Desikam’ that is he should have the knowledge of the scriptures, and the language to teach it.

The teacher could be ideal, the student should also be appropriate, that is he should go with samupetya or willingness to learn. The quest should happen in the surrender mode and not in a judgmental mode.

A master can only explain and give the logic but to internalize and translate it to action is the job of the adept.

Like the Zen masters say, the teacher appears when the student is ready.  The SakhyaMuni puts it as 4 truths of learning.

• Rely on the spirit and meaning of the teaching not the words,
• Rely on the teaching not the personality of the teacher.
• Rely on real wisdom not superficial interpretation.
• Rely on the essence of your pure wisdom and not on judgemental perception.

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