Teachers and Gurus

The 5th of September and social media is flooded with messages to teachers, whether we truly remember them or not.

The reason we celebrate this day as teacher’s day is because when the second President of India, Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan,was approached by his students requesting permission to celebrate his birthday as a special day, he requested them to celebrate it by honouring teachers instead. He was of the opinion that teachers should be the best minds in the country.

In my 58 years of life, I have had both teachers and gurus. Now you may well ask, “What’s the difference?”  I feel there is a huge difference; and the difference lies in how they approach education.

There are teachers who teach and then there are those who impart knowledge. A teacher goes by the book; a guru goes beyond. A teacher looks at teaching as a job; a guru looks at it as a vocation.

Teachers limit their teaching to academics. You find them only in schools and colleges. Gurus are not limited to the academic field, they can be found in every walk of  life.

Gurus are teachers and beyond. They are not ones who insist that we comply, that we follow rules or else. They are the ones who tell us to look beyond rules, to question, to find our own answers, our own voice. They can be anyone; our parents, our siblings, friends, some of our teachers in school and college, strangers or even our children. 

One of my favourite movies is Dead Poet’s society where Robin Williams, as the English teacher John Keatings, encourages the students to go beyond academics. As he says in the movie,

“I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way.” 

All it needs is to open your mind to the fact that learning is not confined to school. It is in every aspect of life and you will find your gurus along the way.