Guru and student attitudes

[Guest guest]

Hello,

 

Can someone explain to what is the usual attitude of a student towards his guru or teacher in India?

 

Thank you.

 

--

Best regards,

François

[Guest guest]

Dear Francois.

 

This is relative , relativity consisting in terms of the place,

(Village,town or city),

times (Modern and Ancient) , Cultures ( Hindu or Others) , Sansakaar

and

( Individual Upbringing) plus the Subject Guru is teaching.

 

In Hindu culture specially, The Guru is revered more than ones own

Father,

even ones own Father would be careful in approaching the Guru of the

child,

especially in Ancient times upto half a century back, this was so,

but in

last 50 years with the dawn of Modernism (I will not use the word

Westernism

as we have many Members here who may not feel good for no fault of

theirs)

this feeling of respect has been diminshing, much more is expected

of the Guru, with less desire of giving any remuneration in returns.

In Ancient times the word of the Guru was final though.

 

In Village and small towns its again not so easy to

dis-respect the Guru as the communities are small there and well-

knit.

It does not take long for the word to spread. But in cities we hear

and

watch on TV disgruntled and frustrated students having got low marks

or personal prejudice towards their professors taking up arms,

blackening

the face of their Gurus, or trying to harm them physically and their

reputations.

But neither are the Gurus of todays so worthy of respect. We

have also heard of Gurus (Professors), even in religious insttitutions

(Of all Castes and religions) trying to spoil the modesty of their

women

shishyas and devotess.

 

But frankly speaking though the village may be proud to respect

the traditions of Guru-shishya relationship, yet in cities too

we have students, people from well cultured families who are

aristocratic (In Money or living cultures) where every inmate knows

the meaning of a Guru and has reverence for the same. because

their upbringing would not allow them to dis-respect their elders.

 

Mostly the Gurus , Mantra Gurus (Those who initiate the Sacred Mantra)

are the most respected lot, next in line comes the Jyotish gurus, and

then

keeps on minutely diminishing in reverence down the line as attributed

to what the Guru is teaching.

 

But all in all, in general, and in majority ,the Guru is very much

respected and revered and placed in high esteem in India.

 

Best wishes,

Bhaskar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

, "ALCHOCODEN" <alchocoden

wrote:

>

> Hello,

>

> Can someone explain to what is the usual attitude of a student

towards his guru or teacher in India?

>

> Thank you.

>

> --

> Best regards,

> François

>

>

[Guest guest]

On 12/29/06, ALCHOCODEN <alchocoden (AT) (DOT) ca> wrote:

>

> Hello,

>

> Can someone explain to what is the usual attitude of a student towards his

> guru or teacher in India?

>

> Thank you.

>

> --

> Best regards,

> François

>

 

Dear Francois,

 

It's hazardous to attempt a representative answer to this question. We're a

land of a billion people, myriad cultural diversities, temperaments, etc.

 

Coming from a righteous kind of family, I remember being taught to treat as

God, among others, teachers - to be obedient, dutiful and similarly

unexciting things. By and large, though there were a few teachers at primary

and secondary school who couldn't tell an arses from an elbow,

insubordination was very rare at primary and secondary school, possibly

because of police rules (I was expelled for a day for the gall in pointing

to the geography teacher that Colombia wasn't in North America, and I'll die

hoping to receive an apology), noticeably higher at the higher secondary

pre-university stage and purely merit-based during graduation.

 

A 'guruji' (always a 'guruji', rarely just 'guru') in modern times is

someone who's adopted by volition in adulthood. It could be for anything -

spiritual solace, veena tutoring, astrological counsel or loo-training the

kitten, and such ones are truly revered by their followers.

 

Cheers,

 

Ramapriya