We often hear, "Teaching is the most noble among professions". Is it true? A Doctor, a Lawyer, a Civil Engineer, an architect, a Contractor and so on are professionals. So the teachers have to say, "The students are my clients". If there are 40 students in his class, he has forty clients. Is it correct? If he cannot call his students as clients, he ceases to be a professional.
A Mother is not a professional. One cannot advertise for a new mother." Wanted! A Mother with qualifications etc., even a wife, a husband and much less children are not professionals. How do they get the status of mothers and children? The relationship is established by the ritual of marriage- relationship by a sacrament. By parenting a child one becomes a father or a mother. They are natural and inborn like the status of a son or a daughter, born of a certain sacrament.
The student-teacher relationship is not 'Shaja'. But it is 'Karmaja'. The student is admitted in the class. That is the 'Karma'. The student chooses to learn from you and you happen to be a teacher. By this a relationship is established. Hence in our culture the respect given to the parents is extended to the teachers."Mathru Devo Bhava".'Pitru Devo Bhava'. The extension is 'Acharya Devo Bhava'. We respect all the three as Eswara.
A teacher is an Acharya. It means he teaches by his own examples. Certain things such as Geography, History, Chemistry, and Physics and so on cannot be taught by examples."Anyan Acharati. "It means' makes others follow'. A teacher teaches both by"Swayam Acharati" and Anyan Acharati". When you teach Vedic Heritage and certain disciplines, you set an example. What is in between a teacher and the students? It is the act of educating-that is imparting knowledge. We have our own concepts of knowledge.
'Gnanam' (i.e.) knowledge is not created on the foundation of an ignorant person. The person whom you educate is evidently ignorant of what the teacher is supported to know. The student has signed up to the teacher, pays fees and teacher classes. The teacher is supposed to know and that knowledge is to be handed over to the students. Is this a construction on the lap of ignorance?
Knowledge in Sanskrit is 'Gnanam'. The opposite is called 'Agnanam'. The meaning of Agnanam is absence of knowledge (i.e.) ignorance. If you say 'aprakasa' you mean there is 'no light-there is darkness. 'Apanditha' means he is not a pandit-other than a 'panditha'. In English you have a word ignorance-meaning 'lack of knowledge'. Ignorance is not something upon which you can build knowledge. 'Agnanam' means the 'virothi' the opposite of knowledge goes away. So also in the wake of knowledge ignorance goes away. Both of them cannot be the same place. Therefore knowledge is never created. Only 'Agnanam' is removed.
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