बलिहारी गुरु आपने...

    India is a land of great culture. One can see vividness in every field right from languages to religion to folks and many others. India is the only country in the world who got innumerable cultures since the ancient period and the nation preserved each and every culture!

              गुरुर ब्रह्मा गुरुर विष्णु गुरुर देवो महेश्वरः

              गुरुः साक्षात्परब्रह्मा तस्मै श्री गुरुवे नमः

Every one of us knows this Sanskrit shloka. Every one of us had learned it by heart in our school days. But how many of us know what it exactly says!!!!

Let me tell you the true meaning of this shloka   

Here  ब्रह्मा means The creator

           विष्णु means  The preserver/ organizer and 

           महेश्वरः means The destroyer

So the shlok goes as a teacher is similar to the creator, the preserver, and the Destroyer. The teacher is similar to the supreme God or almighty. I bow to you, teacher!!!

 Indeed, without these teachers, we would not have been what we are today. They are respectable. They taught us English, Science, History, Geography, Maths, Hindi, and many more subjects. At whatever position we are today, it's beacuse we had our teachers behind us. Different teachers at different time periods. 

 Was it possible for Arjun to be a great archer without Dronacharya? It was Dronacharya who gave Arjun the name and fame he deserved. We all have studied in history that India's first empire was the Mauryan empire. Who was the founder of this great empire who had a mighty king like Ashoka the great? He was Chandragupta Maurya. But do you know Chandragupta was incomplete without his guru CHANAKYA. It was the vision of Chanakya to build an undivided empire viz. BHARAT and Chandragupta Maurya as his disciple. Under Chankya's guidance, Chandragupta made the dream reality. Such is the beauty of teacher-student relationship. 

Kabir had once said that, 

           गुरु कुम्हार शिष कुम्भ है, गढ़ि गढ़ि काढ़ै खोट।

           अंतर हाथ सहार दै, बाहर बाहै चोट।।                                    

This means teacher is like a potter and student, a pot. The teacher removes each and every flaw of the student. They may be strict from the outside but they give shape to the inner you just as a potter beats his pot from outside and holds from inside to give shape. 

          The majority of the teachers I have got are of this type only. They are sweet at times while they scold also at other times but their motive is only to shape our future. Now let's know why teacher's day is celebrated.

          Teacher's day is celebrated on the occasion of birth anniversary of 2nd president of India, Dr. Sarvepalli Radha krishnan.  Being Born on 5 September 1988, S. Radhakrishnan was an academic, philosopher and statesman who was one of the most influential Indian thinkers on academics and is thanked till today for his efforts towards education. He was a keen believer of Hinduism and Vedanta philosophy and promulgated that Vedanta was philosophically correct and ethical. But at the same time, he had the knowledge of western philosophy also and thus he was the one who interlinked Indian and Western education. It was the influence of his writings that Western nations understood the cultures of Eastern nations and importantly India. 

Radhakrishnan was born in a Hindu Brahmin family in Thirutani, Andhra Pradesh. Being born and grown up in a pilgrimage city and as his family was active in religious activities, he was naturally driven to Shankaracharya's Advaita philosophy. He was appointed as professor of Philosophy to the King George V Chair of Mental and Moral Science at the University of Calcutta for around 12 years from 1921 to 1932. He represented CU at the Congress of the Universities of the British Empire and at the International Congress of Philosophy at Harvard University, the USA in 1926. The Doctor was appointed as a professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at the University of Oxford. This position was specifically made by HN Spalding in 1936 because he was impressed and fascinated after Radhakrishnan’s lectures in London and his personality. Radhakrishnan was nominated 16 times and 11 times for Nobel Prize in Literature and Peace respectively.

Radhakrishnan was a person of huge respect and honor among his students. During his tenure of vice-president, he was in charge of rajya sabha sessions. Whenever any discussion heated-up, he used to recite Sanskrit shlokas and bible quotes to calm the members. Dr Radhakrishnan was elected as the chairman of UNESCO's executive board in 1948. Dr Radhakrishnan taught at various colleges- from the University of Mysore to the University of Calcutta.

And at last, the great soul took his last breath on April 16, 1975, in Chennai. We can know how much his students admired him by the fact that once when he was en route to the Mysore railway station from the Mysore University, his students had arranged for a flower-decked carriage to take him to the destination. This carriage was pulled by the students themselves!

And hence, today also we celebrate his birthday at National teacher's day. Here are some of the great words said by Dr. Sarvepalli Radha Krishnan:

1. Books are the means by which we build the bridges between cultures.

2. The true teachers are those who help us think for ourselves.

3. Teachers should be the best minds in the country.

4. When we think we know, we cease to learn

5. True religion is a revolutionary force.

6. It takes centuries to make a little history

7. A literary genius, it is said, resembles all, though no one resembles him

8. Religion is behavior and not mere belief

9. Man is a paradoxical being- The constant glory and scandal of this world 

10. The end product of education should be a free creative man, who can not only battle against historical circumstances but also the adversities of nature

          Now the question arises is who are teachers?

          Are they the ones who teach us in schools, junior colleges, and professional colleges or someone else too? Are they the only ones who deserve respect on Teachers Day and Guru Purnima?

          The answer is no. The literal meaning of a teacher is the one who teaches you. On deep observation, we may see that there are many people other than our official teachers who teach us. In fact, there are many things which teach us something or the other. We must be thankful to each and every of these. 

          When we were born, we were bound only to our mother and thus Our Mother is our very first teacher. 

Similarly, Father is our second teacher. Then our pre-primary teachers who made our base. Further our official teachers of School, College, etc. 

         Our idols to whom we follow are also our teachers like if we follow Elon Musk, he is our teacher and if we follow Mahatma Gandhi, then he is. Do you remember Eklavya of Mahabharata? He made Dronacharya's idol and learned archery from the idol. In a modern sense also, we can be Eklavya and we are lucky enough that we don't need to cut the thumb as गुरु-दक्षिणा. 

         Further, our mobile is a teacher if taken in a positive sense. If we are learning something from an ant then the little ant is also a teacher. We all read success stories, but what about failure stories. Heroes of success and failure Stories are also our teachers. So, on this auspicious day, we must take a minute and thank everyone and everything for whatever we learned till today. 

          We are born in a nation where teachers are given the highest respect. We can understand this by the fact that we don't know how and when, but we know the names of Parshuram, Dronacharya, Ved Vyas, Valmiki, Vashishtha, Vishwamitra, Brihaspati and Shukracharya, etc. 

           Our heroes Ram and Krishna too reasoned all their virtues to their gurus Vashishta and Sandipni respectively. So why don't we do! Many of us can see that with time, the respect given by children to teachers is declining day by day. Some Children don't feel shame while teasing and calling by weird names to teachers. This hurts me. Because this is not what we are taught since childhood. Then, under whose influence are we doing this. Think on it! Even teachers of today are mostly professionals. Their motive is to teach their subject to children and not to inculcate good habits and manners. Students learn manners and good habits till they are in school but as soon as they move out from there, they don't get that guidance, and thus, they lose their path. 

          Every child needs one teacher for a lifetime who will show the true path and will help in crossing every obstacle just like the role of Chanakya in Chandragupta's life. That teacher can be also in the form of parents, siblings or friends, but everyone needs one. Those students are indeed lucky who get a teacher for a lifetime! 

         Some of the famous teacher-student pairs we know are-

        1. Ramakant Achrekar- Sachin Tendulkar

        2. P. Gopichand- PV Sindhu

        3. Ramakrishna Paramhansa- Swami Vivekanand

        4. Chanakya and Chandragupta Maurya

        5. Birju Maharaj- Madhuri Dixit

        6. Aristotle- Alexander

Lastly, I would like to pile up by a saying of Saint Kabir meaning-

If the teacher and God both will stand, whom should I bow first, surrender yourself to teacher is answered by the GOD!!!

           "गुरु गोविन्द दोऊ खड़े, काके लागू पाय।

           बलिहारी गुरु आपने, गोविन्द जिन दियो बताय।।"

                         "HAPPY TEACHER'S DAY"