I simply cannot conjure myself as writing, or bring myself to write, on Teacher’s Day…as it has to be, and would always be, Teachers’ Day. Not that my Teachers would pull me up for not doing so. No teacher would…for that matter. But it is my own self that wouldn’t allow me not to acknowledge the intense and constant presence of all.
True I shall not be naming them. Why? Because a name would be confining, in the context of their indispensable impact on me…and my life. Not only that, there being so many of them…and many more to follow…failing to mention even one of them, however unintentional, would be a betrayal of their influence.
Though repeatedly we commit this mistake…by not recognizing our teachers as our teachers. Because, the problem with us is our affinity for preconceived notions…in fact it is not affinity, but dependence on them. Even when we are looking for answers and the answers stare at our face, we are not able to recognize them, as we expect the answer to have a specific form. Isn’t it paradoxical? We don’t know something, yet we harbor an image of what it should be! Well, we and our mental constructs…
Thus it is no wonder we fail to recognize the various teachers, life gifts us with…
Who is a teacher?
The one who provides answers to our academic questions…helps us to improve our grades in the examination in school and college?
That’s all?
No. A teacher does more than that…is much more …and the ‘much’ and ‘more’ cannot be quantified.
The first teacher that we are blessed with is our parents…yet we consider them only as our parents…and not teacher. And for it we are not to be blamed. What is to be blamed is our ignorance as regards whom to call our teacher…instead of concentrating on how a teacher should ‘look’! The fixation with ‘forms’ has to give way to the openness to accept as teacher, whosoever and whatsoever enlightens us. Teachers transcend the academia…to become an entity who aids in our ‘growth’ instead of merely reinforcing our bank-of-information…contained in the books of our text.
A teacher in providing answers, helps us to know what we don’t know…makes us aware of our unawareness. The teacher urges us to seek more questions…and ultimately sets us on the path-of-searching for our own answers…and in doing so helps us recognize and appreciate many more teachers…in many forms, in any form—in the animate—and in the formless… the inanimate. And this goes beyond the curriculum, because for a teacher the only curriculum is the ‘overall growth’ of the students so as to educate them, and not merely help them in becoming qualified in specific discipline(s)…for jobs. Make no mistake life is the Ultimate Job…
My life has been blessed with such teachers…none lesser than the other in significance…and each appearing at the right time…as is the forte of life. It is always on time, which again we fail to realize. They have all followed a chronological order in their appearance in my life…the preceding one preparing me for the lessons of the teacher to follow next. And once they have appeared, their presence has become a constant presence, even after the absence of their appearance.
We know not which teacher life would send our way. Apart from the teacher in a physical form…it could be a movie…a specific dialogue or scene, all of a sudden solving a mystery of life for us with a mental click…or it could be an article that contains a specific line that does the trick…or a song…and in my case, books and articles. Each one of them has been unique, and indispensable, and simply indescribable in entirety of their effect. Well words would be too confining even for a writer…
Hence the term inanimate, for books doesn’t go down well with me. And for that matter how could anything that infuses us with a feeling of revitalization…energizes us…inspire us and make us capable of receiving the inspirations…in one word, helps us be-come truly alive…with heightened awareness…makes us more animate, be themselves inanimate? Well, again it is my teachers…physical and non-physical…who convince me that perceptions would naturally vary…and couldn’t be absolute. And experience is one of the biggest teachers…let us not forget that too.
And if in one sentence I had to state who a teacher is…my answer would be... “A teacher is the one who gives you back to you…leads you to you…sets you on the path to search for your own self…” There could be no knowledge more profound than this…because unless we know who we are, we cannot know the truth of anything else…and when we claim to do so, we simply affirm our illusion.
An external teacher leads us to the internal teacher…our true self…and helps us thus to ‘feel’ the connection with the Teacher Ultimate…to ultimately render us our own teacher.
Each moment is lived through, and with the aid of, the teachings of my teachers…external and internal…and though time and again I find myself to falter…I find my teachers by my side. They make each moment a teaching and learning moment. Life would not have been the same without them. I hereby acknowledge, not only on this day, but each moment, their guiding presence in and my life and thank all my teachers for gracing my life…and thank in advance many more teachers who would surely follow…
It shall always be for me Teachers’ Day…
