Guru- Shishya ... an Eternal connect.

On a pleasant Spring Morning, I sit back on my chair, shut my eyes and just want to be.....  my mind runs back on a series of thoughts...  and one after the other I have flashes, glimpses of memorable moments with my teachers.  No special events as such, just random experiences which in the long run turned into pieces of gems for me.

Sentences, gestures, my feelings and emotions in those moments; all kind of get so real as if I am living them right now, right here.

And in all those moments; I observe myself as a student,  even today with my head just a little bent; even in the thoughts about my mentors, Gurus, teachers from every possible field.  The feeling remains the same, one of humility, one of the thirst to learn,  and the immense respect I carry in my heart for each one of them.   And I think that is what helps me be grounded no matter where I go, no matter from where to where I have come, no matter what my achievents have been.... My teachers are always one rung above me in the scheme of my life. 

There have been moments where I may not have agreed to their ways, but reality remains that  it was their school, their ways of teaching, I was just one student with an empty bowl to fill, to learn.   How can I question their methods, their intentions, their road maps for me???

My mind runs back and forth between my experiences as a student and now as a teacher...   Just a few decades but our time as a student feels like centuries ago.

Today, I find many of those subtle elements missing in a student, today I find the empty bowl missing, its all full, overflowing and yet there is a greed to grab more.

You don't go to a teacher to buy their services or their art or skill, you go to them to draw into you those qualities that you cannot define, cannot see, cannot touch, to just carry their fragrance along with you and move ahead in life.

I always tell my students, don't come to me to learn a song, a chord, to get some notes.. internet is filled with all of those, free of cost.  

Come to me to know how to look at an Art, how to approach learning, on how to expand your perspective, come to me to broaden your horizons, to feel some energies that have been passed on to me by my teachers,  to carry forward the legacies.....

One cannot put a price tag to the teachings,  genuinely try it..... you cannot.

I cannot put a price tag to the time and effort of my kindergarten ma'am who held my hand and taught me to write, or the sports trainer who yelled at me and pushed me to get my mind over body, or my Music Gurus who fine tuned me, polished me every single day and continue to do so.   At times with love, at times with a strict approach, at times breaking me into pieces emotionally just to get the ego away,  at times being indifferent.... all a part and parcel of their ways to mould me. As if they could see a beautiful carving in a lump of clay that I was.... and they had to cut through even if it hurt me...

It would be very naive of me to feel that I have become better than any of them, it would be ridiculous to think that I know more, it would be a blunder to try to show them how they should teach me and mould themselves as per my needs.  Even the thought brings me a gentle laugh, as if praying to save me from such naivety  ever..

The bond between the Guru and Shishya is eternal;  provided the Shishya in me is Alive...

I bow down one more time to my Teachers, my Gurus....  "..because you are..... I am!!