I.D Soni
Youth is hope not despair. If our beloved and broken India is to be rebuilt, it needs youths full of hope and faith and courage to lay a moral and spiritual foundation of a new nation. Education of the true type has in view, the health and happiness of the whole nation.
Let the teachers adhere to the powerful message of Swami Vivekanand on this sacred occasion of birthday of a great educationist Shri (Dr.) Radhakrishanan. Swami ji said, “Each soul is potentially divine; the goal is to manifest this Divine within, by controlling nature, external as well as internal. We need science and technology, sociology and politics, economic and statistics, mathematics and languages, information technology and business administration so that we can contribute to social welfare and human progress, but we also need spiritual enrichment and mastery over the self, so that we may move closer to the perfection that one of us is capable of achieving.”
What Does This Involve?
(1) Our students must be taught to love and respect our national heritage, our culture, our traditions and our ancient Indian values and ideals.
(2) Simultaneously, they should be made aware of contemporary life and knowledge- for the modern world too, has a lot to teach us. Our students must be equipped with the capacity whereby they may become worthy contributors to the economic and social well-being of the nation.
(3) The third and most important dimension would be the application of these two aspects to the cultivation of character-the training of the students for life.
(4) Our students must be equipped with courage and vision, with culture and courtesy, virtues and graces and values which alone can make them mature and emotionally stable men and women who will learn in peace and harmony, in amity and the spirit of brotherhood, sisterhood with their neighbours, with their fellow human beings, with the nature and with the mighty forces of this vast universe.
(5) Material advancement-yes; scientific and technological progress-certainly; socio-political efficiency-very essential. But over and above all this; spiritual enrichment, and recognition of the divine potential in each one of them (students)- this alone can be regarded as complete education- true education. A great thinker and educationist, Gentile made an illuminating remark, “A school without a spiritual content is an absurdity.” And we in this country, have been trapped in this absurdity for many, many years now.
ROLE OF THE TEACHER
Here comes the role of a true teacher. The true teacher is he who can immediately come down the level of the students, and transfers his soul to the students souls and sees through and understands through their minds-such a teacher can really teach and none else. A true teacher is a radiant man: he/she transmits light: He is a man, a woman of character. And character is more than book knowledge. Every student has good inherent in the soul; it needs to be drawn out by the teacher and only that teacher can perform this sacred function whose own character is unsullied, who is always ready to learn and grow from perfection to perfection. A true teacher is he who is not ashamed of learning from a small child. Learning for a teacher is very essential. I would like to give an example of a great learner. Within a few days of landing in Bombay, young Spanish priest by the name of Henry Heras found himself in the presence of St. Xavier’s college, Bombay. He met the principal of the college. The young priest was a Historian, and had a degree in Spanish history. “Which branch would you like to teach?” the principal asked him. “Indian history,” Father Heras replied. “What do you know about Indian history?” the principal asked. Father Heras said he knew nothing. “Then how are you going to teach it?” “I shall study it,” Father Heras replied.
So intent was he upon carrying out his mission that he did not once baulk at the enormity of the task that lay ahead. It meant learning the history of a whole subcontinent and that too, which dated back to the most ancient of times, and into which were interwoven the histories of many people. The complexity of the task was intensified by the lack of documentary evidence for certain important periods of Indian history and the fact that much had to be pieced together on the basis of archaeological discoveries. But he sat about his task with such thoroughness and determination that he became not only an accomplished teacher of history, but a historian of repute of the same class as Sir Jadunath Sarkar and Dr. Surendra Nath Sen. He died in 1956, what his work is still commemorated by an institute in Mumbai which is named after him: The Heras Institute. The teachers must be ready to make the enormous sacrifices and engage in the unremitting toil which true missionary’s (teacher’s) work demands.
Dr. S. Radhakrishnan (Ex. President of India) used to say that the Guru (a teacher) is one who removes our spiritual blindness. Otherwise, he is not a Guru- a true teacher; he is one who merely talks. What has been said so far, it reveals that the ultimate factor in Education is the teacher: his character and calibre alone determine the success of any well-meant reform. The teacher is the noblest servant of the nation. Humility is no doubt the badge of our tribe but there is no need for us to feel that we are human door-mats to be trodden upon by others. We are humble only in the sense that we do not crave for vulgar publicity. But there is a touch of immortality in the work of the teacher. He recreates in the students an image of his own highly-evolved spirit. Some of the greatest men that made their mark in the wider National life in our own Motherland, have been the gift of the teaching profession- Mahadeva Govinda Ranade, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Gopal Krishan Gokhale, Swami Vivekanand, Swami Ramathirtha, Rt. Hon’ble Srinivasa Sastri, Dr. Zakir Hussain and Sir S. Radhakrishnan are but a very few shining examples. It is not right to feel aggrieved that the material compensation we get is not commensurate with the importance of our work. It is for other people to understand the position and to take effective steps to improve it. We cannot demean ourselves on that score and become objects of pity and commiseration. Money is necessary for life, but money is not the only criterion of virile social status. One can be rich without money and majestic without artificial power. There is an element of sacrifice in the pursuit of the teaching profession. We must be prepared for it.
We must be dignified in our bearing and outlook and set sober models to our pupils. We are expected to train our children for a good life here and hereafter, and not merely teach subjects that have no correlation to eternal values. It is not the empty eloquence of far off shadows that is wanted of us teachers but the living voice of the heart resonant with the eternal wisdom of the spirit.
A Nation is what its schools make it. A school is what its teachers make it. By the determined, devoted and united efforts of the teachers, every school must become transfigured into a true Vidya Mandir and not a dark prison-house which shivers with the depressing shrieks of unhappy imps. Let us, therefore resolve on this very auspicious, promising and favourable occasion while celebrating Teachers day on the birth day of a great educationist not of India but of the world to carry on with unabated zeal, undiminished spirit of dedication to imbibe in the fullest measure the mighty spirit that moves the great architect of the noble educational edifice. We should inculcate in us the holy passion to educate the heart, the head, and the hand of young, the builders of tomorrow.
Let us not wait for our Universities, our Boards of Studies, and our “authorities” to introduce a new subject called ‘spiritual’ studies’ or a special component called “character building-man making” in our syllabus. The spiritual component in education cannot come from without. It already exists in us, the teachers- in the choice we have made to be an educator. Bring this spiritual light to bear upon all that we do- and we will become a true teacher in every sense of that word. In our ancient India teachers were looked upon a Gurus, acharyas. What do these words indicate? Acharya is one whose “achaar” or conduct is exemplary, is good. Let us inspire the pupils who are entrusted to our care with love and virtue, and goodness and abhorrence of cruelty and violence. This is the message of Great Educationist Sir (Dr.) S. Radhakrishnan Ji whose Birthday we are celebrating today and cleave it as a true teacher.
When we have a great and over-riding mission in life that no task seems too difficult, no hardship too great. Let us try our best to train the minds, assist the manners, and shape the morals of the members of the community at their impressionable age. The role of teacher in present set-up is to become a spiritual preceptor- a reservoir and a transmitter of Spiritual Knowledge, Spiritual Power and energy, which he passes on to his Students.
