By – Prof PB Sharma
5th September 2024: There can be no two opinions that education is the strongest pillar of civic society and a profound empowerment to individuals to lead a life of dignity and honour in service of the nation and humanity at large. It is for this reason that from ancient times till today, great importance is attached to educating our children and grooming them as noble citizens of the global world. The teachers being at the center of this noble profession command great respect both from the student community as well as the society as a whole for the invaluable service they render to their students and to the organization, the school, a college, or a university to which they belong. Some of their students attain great glory and emerge as Nobel Laureates, Heads of State, outstanding university leaders, great globally renowned academics, and researchers of eminence. eminent lawyers, great administrators, outstanding innovators, highly successful entrepreneurs, and the list goes on to include all those to attain name fame and glory in their respective professions.
Great Satisfaction that the Teachers Draw:
The great satisfaction that the teachers draw is not from what they have achieved for themselves but from what their students whom they groomed have achieved in their lives. It is for this reason that the position of a teacher, the Aacharya has been revered as a Guru and has been kept at the highest pedestal of reverence in our Vedic Sanatan Sanskriti that respected teachers as the Gurus and equated them to no less than God Almighty.
Rightly said so in the Sanatan Vedic Sanskriti:
गुरू ब्रह्मा, गुरू विष्णु गुरू देवो महेश्वरा ; गुरू साक्षात परब्रह्म, तस्मै श्री गुरुवे नमः ।
Such a high reverence and respect of the society at large therefore demanded the teaching profession to be one of the noblest professions and teachers to be the noblest citizens in the society who were ordained with the highest levels of knowledge, highly enriched wisdom, and above all abundance of Aatmiyata with which they connected with their students and served them with a spirit of sacrifice and spared no efforts what so ever to groom them as the noblest citizens of the world. Naturally the mentors, the teachers themselves are to be the noblest persons in the society whose depth of knowledge, conduct, and character glows eminence of integrity and righteousness that impacts the humanity at large. It is this nobility of the teachers that is celebrated as the National Teachers Day on 5th September each year in India, the Bharat to pay our great respect to Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, a great teacher of global eminence who taught and researched here in India and also abroad and rose to the highest position of great honour as the founder Vice Chancellor of Andhra University and also as the Vice Chancellor of BHU Varanasi and President of Association of Indian Universities, AIU. Prof Radhakrishnan became the second President of India and was awarded Bharat Ratna, the highest honour that the nation bestows upon persons of great nobility. This is also a day to pay our utmost respect to our great teachers such as Guru Vashishtha, Maharishi Viswamitra, Maharishi Bharatdwaj, Guru Dronacharya, Maharishi Patanjali, Maharishi Charak, Aadi Sankaracharya and the great teachers of the modern scientific era who made the humanity proud of their nobility, simplicity and service with the spirit of sacrifice to leave behind a legacy of teaching eminence in service of the humanity and Mother Nature.
Nobility of Teachers:
Teachers’ nobility is to be seen in terms of their ‘service with the spirit of sacrifice’, with unclenching integrity with which they conduct themselves and sincerity of purpose, and above all their simplicity of personal life and the glow of eminence with a caring touch of their Aatmiyata infinite. The nobility of the teaching profession needs to be reflected in the nobility of its teachers and in turn the glittering glow of eminence of the educational ecosystem should inspire the learners to engage in the pursuit of education and research with utmost sincerity and unconditional commitment to the pursuit of excellence, that later in professional life is to be reflected as the Bhagwat Gita says in “Yoga Karmeshu Koshalam”
Overriding Career Concerns have eroded the Nobility of the Teaching Profession:
But over the last few decades, the noble profession of teaching has become more career-centric, than the thrust on nobility, simplicity, and integrity that were the hallmark of this great noble profession from the time immemorial. The noble profession of teachers is today in search of nobility that the education system so much requires in abundance today as the new age of intense technology integration in all aspects of human life including the world of learning, the world of work and the world of administration and governance requires people of great capabilities who possess with pride and practice with pleasure the nobility integrated with integrity and sincerely and commit themselves to give their very best to their student disciples and shape them as the noble citizens of the new world that is in the making on the strength of the ingenuity of human mind, artificial intelligence of machines and deep data analytics supported decision making systems that are creating a teaching learning environment to give rise to translation of the novelty of ideas to great thought power and science and technology prowess for the humanity to sove with certainty the current and future mega challenges and create a blissful habitat for the vast humanity, now that the world community has risen to the great realization that we belong to One World, One Family and have Common Future, akin to the clarion calls of the Vedic Spiritual Civilization of Bharat that proclaimed the whole world as “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”.
My warmest Greetings on Teachers Day. Let the nobility of the teaching profession continue to inspire us to uphold the teaching profession in the highest esteem for its nobility and unconditional service to society and Mother Nature.
The Author Prof PB Sharma is an eminent academician, past President of Association of Indian Universities, AIU, Founder and Vice Chancellor of DTU and RGPV, former Professor of IIT Delhi and Vice Chancellor of Amity University Gurugram.
The views expressed are the personal views of the author.