RELATIONSHIP BYTES
A teacher-student relationship is very unique, because it’s mutually enriching. My father once in a discussion stated that –“A teacher is just like a driver of a bus, if he takes a little nap during driving, all passengers are likely to fall asleep forever.” A teacher is thus a driver or catalyst of change for the society and students. He’s charged with the sacred duty of enlightening and awakening the consciousness of everyone who comes in his association. He’s a formidable change-maker of the fate of his disciples and the society at large simultaneously.
May it be the Socrates-Plato-Aristotle-Alexander tradition of Greece, the Dronacharya-Arjun-Eklavya, or the RamkrishnaParamhans-Vivekanand tradition of India, teachers and students have always scripted golden pages of history together. Bernard Suzzane writes in ‘Short Biography on Plato’ about how dialogue as a form of pedagogy was developed by Socrates while disseminating discourse to his disciples. Some of the remarkable Socratic dialogues namely Symposium, Oeconomicus, Hiero are widely celebrated in Greek tradition.
Though Plato and Xenophon, both were close to Socrates as his disciples, yet the accounts on Socrates penned by Plato are mostly recognized by us and not ofXenophon. Both have written Apology concerning death of Socrates, but Plato’s work is widely recognized. This reflects how proximity in relationship affects even the authenticity of literature. Relationships thus influence every sphere of man’s activities and teacher-student bond is no exception.
Socrates was almost 40 years senior to Plato, yet the bond duo shared was exceptionally congenial and friendly. Most important is to understand that despite being always emphatic in his dissemination, Socrates never tried to forcefully thrust his ideas and ideals upon Plato. Rather he always encouraged him to develop his own thought-process and ideological engagements.
We thus witness a starking difference between the ideas supported by teacher (Socrates) and his student (Plato) on many occasions. Socrates believes that all men must endeavor to discover truth wherefrom happiness generates, while Plato contends that truth is for only selected few i.e. intellectually higher class. The discourses of Socrates were mostly centered around epistemology, while Plato wrote extensively on literature, society, love, arts, education, friendship and galaxy of other areas of life.
It’s thus imperative for the modern day teachers to understand that they are expected to let their disciples develop their own thought process. Your job as a teacher is to just provide them with wings and then let them loose to tap and fly in their own skies. No wonders, Socrates is considered as father of Western philosophy, while his students Plato and Aristotle are also considered as father of philosophy and political science respectively.
Even teachers, at times, can learn from students some new insights about life. A guru and shishya were once passing through a forest. It was getting dark and teacher was again and again looking in his bag and asking student to pace up his steps so that they could reach some house and rest. After some time, the duo stopped near a well to quench their thirst. Moving ahead a few miles thereafter, the teacher again cautioned the student to speed up. The student at once replied – “Guru, we need not speed up now, because the reason of our speeding up has been dumped by me in the well where we drank water.” When guru checked his bag, to his surprise the Gold and jewels were no more in the bag.
Even Gautam Buddha had many disciples who were close to him, yet Ananda was the one who was closest to him. Thus, most of the earliest texts in Buddhist literature like Sutta Pittaka are attributed to his recollection of Buddha’s teachings. The duo also engaged highly in dialogic discourse as method of teaching- learning. Once a disciple had asked Buddha, “Are you a God or a Man?” He said- “Neither. I’m only the one who has just awaken while you all others still asleep”
History bears a testimony that the love of students for their teachers knows no bounds irrespective of a teacher’s treatment to him in reciprocity. Despite Guru Dronacharya rejecting to teach an aspirational student like Eklavya, he had still offered him his thumb as a guru-dakshina. A teacher is a friend, philosopher and guide for his disciples. He is the immediate next institute of socialization for him after his family. A teacher is thus expected to render all possible support to his student and boost his morale from time to time.
We all know about the impasse and wide disagreements between Gandhi and Subhash Chandra Bose who used to idealize him as a guru. Yet he was never accorded equal treatment by Gandhi in comparison to Nehru and Patel, his two other beloved disciples. It however did not lead to any disrespect by Bose towards Gandhi. On the contrary, Bose became an Eklavya of Gandhi who also bestowed upon him the honorific title –‘Father of the Nation’.
Dr.Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was so highly adored as a teacher that his students used to describe his lectures as ‘daily feasts’ for them. They used to speak highly about his delightful informality during discourses and his bonhomie that would put them instantly at ease. So the conventional wisdom that students take undue advantage of teachers if they get informal with them has been refuted with his example. At his farewell ceremony, the students had literally pulled his open carriage till it reached the Mysore Railway Station. The atmosphere at platform was charged with the resonating chants of ‘Jai to Radhakrishnan’.
A Yogi Ramkrishna Paramhans who challenged the bread-winning pedagogy and developed spiritualism moulded a genius disciple like Vivekanand, who was believed to be an atheist till he met Paramhans.
Today the trend of teacher-student relationship seems to be gasping for a fresh breath with teachers like Professor Matuknath Choudhary, Anup Jalota, Baba Ram Rahim, Asaram bapu and students like Julie, Jasleen Matharu, Honeypreet having taken charge of the scene. The glowing tradition of Guru-Shishya can’t be but undermined with these few exceptions as there are also teachers like Socrates who drink Hemlock poison to uphold a right cause. Nevertheless, the symbiotic association of teacher-student can contribute to the process of nation-building.
(Author is a budding criminal lawyer at Delhi. He is a national level orator, debater, poet and has served as an Assistant Project Director (APD) at a Government Institute. He can be reached at: ferozpathanabc@gmail.com)
