India is great land of culture and values. Actually in most cases (if not in all), India was a great land of culture and values. In ancient times, we used to have very great relation of teacher and student.
Teacher and student relation was not limited to few hours of training. Instead student was devoted to teacher for 24 hours (and lifetime) and teacher was devoted to his student for 24 hours (and lifetime).
Ok Let’s go back in ancient times….
Kids (irrespective of any caste) of certain age had to leave home (parents) for few years to live at his Guru’s Ashram so that student can devote himself fully to his training . Kids had to take care of Guru’s Ashram (like cleaning, supervision etc) which was part of his training (vidiya). Shastra (Knowledge of martial arts including weapons) and Shaastra (Knowledge of Vedas) both were mandatory training. Knowledge of dance, music, painting etc. was also given and different student specialized in different-different arts as per their ability/ interest shown to his Guru.
All the finance to manage Ashram was provided by King (including villages) of that area. And so student didn’t had to pay to his teacher anything monthly except the Guru Dakshina (usually given after finishing training) by student. Guru Dakshina was not any contract liability of the student. Instead it was part of values of ancient Indian system and this was given by every student as per Guru’s wish or as per student’s ability. After finishing training student left Ashram for their home and further Karmas.
Time kept changing and ancient India was ruled by Mughals and Britishers who tried their best to destroy Indian culture including our education system and they succeded a lot in their aims. Whatever happened, has happened. Let me focus on what is happening right now. Most of today’s Indians are still getting inspired by western culture and following them. As a result, teacher and student relation has turned into a Customer-Client relationship. I wrote “most of the” because few are still trying to follow that tradition. I do not mean leaving home and living in teacher’s house/school/ academy. I mean few are still trying to maintain that respect and loving relationship with their teacher. This is rarely found in today’s education system based on western concepts. Everything has changed a lot. Both teacher and student have corrupted this relationship. You can find teacher beating their student at extreme levels and worse even raping them. Just read a news few days back where a teacher hit his student’s head on desk so badly that student got facial paralysis. On the other hand we have student’s who see their teacher as a beautiful lady/ handsome teacher. I mean for a student teacher should be a teacher and not any man/woman. In some cases student make plans to even beat their teacher. I have seen this personally in my school days. So what have we gained by getting inspired from western culture. Personally I am not against westerners. I am not against anyone in this world. But I have right to say wrong as wrong and right as right. Ancient Indian culture was way ahead than western culture. When I say ancient India I mean Ancient and not corrupted Indian culture we had few fifty to hundred years back (not so sure about this year) including now seen in villages.
Coming to martial arts and it’s academies. Very very few teachers are trying to maintain respect and loving relationship with their students and fully dedicated hours of their life to each other. Fully dedicated do not mean giving up the job, school, college etc. as this has become a norm for our society to survive. But it means trying to implement whatever student have learnt from their teacher. On teacher part, it means looking and trying to solve all kinds of life’s problem of their student by showing them a right way/path irrespective of the time including giving knowledge of the art in which teacher specializes.
But many teacher’s (including their academies) are following other way of life. This is again due to western influence. Teacher has become a trainer/instructor and Student has become a customer for their teacher. Learning for a student has been kept limited for few hours (usually one or two hours). Student pay and instructor teach and so everything is corrupted. This is because student (or his parents) thinks that money can buy everything including knowledge. But according to me MONEY CAN NEVER BUY KNOWLEDGE. For ex. I may teach someone who is interested in having this customer client relationship due to money requirement but I may not be able to give the very core martial arts knowledge to such kind of students. But fact is I do not enjoy teaching such students. I usually get bore with such students.
How this relation can be improved in today’s world??? How can this ancient tradition be brought back into modern world???
- Teacher should not be someone just having done any certified course. But instead should be someone who enjoys his work. This is how teacher will gain respect in eyes of student.
- Student has to respect their teacher as someone who is going to change their life.
- Student has to understand that their teacher has expenses and family. So least that can done is to pay their fees on time.
- Teacher should not limit student for any particular hours. Instead dedicated students must be given training any time of the day as per available time of teacher.
- Teacher should always be present, at-least on phone, to solve their student’s life’s problem and to motivate them when required.
- Teacher should not teach just for money though it is one of the basic requirement. Instead should teach looking at the dedication and aim of student.
- Student has to take care of teacher and teacher has to take care of his student as per their respective ability for lifetime. This relation is not for few days or years.
Let’s finish this post with below line.
Student is like some candle which is still not lighted up. Teacher is like fire which lights the candle and then you see the light in a room.
Note: If you believe in above theory of Teacher student relationship, you can contact and learn in this academy from Ranjit Mishra. Martial arts classes are run in Indirapuram and Vaishali.
