In Honor of all the Teachers..

Teachers,
You are the molders of their dreams
The gods who build or crush
Their young beliefs of right or wrong.
You are the spark that sets aflame
The poet's hand or lights the flame
of some great singer's song.You are the god of the young, the very young
You are th guardian of a million dreams
Your every smile or frown
can heal or pierce the heart
You are a hundred lives, a thousand lives.
Yours the pride of loving them
And the sorrow too.
Your patient work, your touch
Make you the goals of hope
Who fill their souls with dreams
To make those dreams come true.


- Ronald Reagan

The One Goal of All Nature

The grandest idea in Vedanta is that we may reach the same goal by different paths; and these paths I have generalised into four—viz., those of work, love, psychology and knowledge. But you must, at the same time, remember that these divisions are not very marked and quite exclusive of each other. Each blends into the other. But according to the type which prevails we name the divisions. It is not that you cannot find a man who has no other faculty than that of work, nor that you cannot find men who are more than devoted worshippers only, nor that there are not men who have more than mere knowledge. These divisions are made in accordance with the type or the tendency that may be seen to prevail in a man.
We have found that, in the end, all these four paths converge and become one. All religions and all methods of work and worship lead us to one and the same goal.
I have already tried to point out that goal. It is freedom as I understand it. Everything that we perceive around us is struggling towards freedom, from the atom to the man, from the insentient, lifeless particle of matter to the highest existence on earth, the human soul. The whole universe is in fact the result of this struggle for freedom. In all combinations every particle is trying to go on its own way, to fly from the other particles; but the others are holding it in check.
Our earth is trying to fly away from the sun, and the moon from the earth. Everything has a tendency to infinite dispersion. All that we see in the universe has for its basis this one struggle towards freedom ; it is under the impulse of this tendency that the saint prays and the robber robs. When the line of action taken is not a proper one we call it evil, and when the manifestation of it is proper and high we call it good. But the impulse is the same, the struggle towards freedom. The saint is oppressed with the knowledge of his condition of bondage, and he wants to get rid of it ; so he worships God. The thief is oppressed with the idea that he does not possess certain things, and he tries to get rid of that want, to obtain freedom from it ; so he steals.
Freedom is the one goal of all nature, sentient or insentient ; and, consciously or unconsciously, everything is struggling towards that goal. The freedom which the saint seeks is very different from that which the robber seeks ; the freedom loved by the saint leads him to the enjoyment of infinite unspeakable bliss, while that on which the robber has set his heart only forges other bonds for his soul.
--Swami Vivekananda

HAVE SHRADDHA ON GOD, BUT DO LOCK YOUR CAR

There was a saint who was daily telling the people that, God gives us every thing, he takes care of everything, but at the same time we should do our duty properly. In course of time he became famous for his teachings.  The king of the area heard of this and he also wanted to hear him.

So, one day without telling anyone and without his royal regalia, he took a horse and rode to the place where the saint was residing.  He tied his horse loosely to a tree at the ashram and went and sat amongst the audience unnoticed.

The saint was immersed in his talk and everyone listened to his discourse attentively. The king was much impressed. The saint concluded his speech : So small things should not disturb us. God takes care of every one and all. What He wants is that every one should perform his duties sincerely.

The king was happy to hear the talk and he left the place unnoticed. When he went near the tree where he had tied the horse, he found it was missing. He was taken aback and wanted to accost the saint about his missing horse.

He met the saint and Said; Swamiji, I believed yours words totally. I had left my horse loosely tied to a tree in your ashram. Now I find it is missing. How can we believe that God takes care of all?

Swamiji replied: dear friend you have believed in my sayings only in part. You believed that God would take care of everything, but failed in your duty to tie your horse properly to the tree. However, God takes care of us when we take care of the thing which he has given us and God gives them only who takes care of themselves and the things which he has given to them.

However, since you are a good king and your officers are dutiful they will find your horse soon. The king was mulling over the words and just then his horse came back to the spot where it was tied. It had strayed far away by mistake as the rope was loose but once it realized that it was far from the place where it was tied, it returned on its own. There was no need for the king to ask his officers to search for the missing horse.

He realized that one should believe God; he should also do his duties properly. Then only God takes care of them.

Inspire Students

The primary responsibility of a teacher is to inspire the students. He has to work with variety of his faculties dynamically while taking classes. It's really a challenging job. It's as if the operating system in a computer making the life of a computer user simpler. It's even more challenging when one is trying to explain a complex technology. Explaining effectively is an art and needs lots of creativity. The person who listens will never understand the complex thought processes going inside the teacher's mind while he is trying to simplify and explain complex things.

Some of the important points that inspire the students are

• Instructor's enthusiasm
• Relevance of the material
• Organization of the course
• Appropriate difficulty level of the material
• Active involvement of students
• Variety
• Rapport between teacher and students
• Use of appropriate, concrete, and understandable examples

A teacher is like a boat

A teacher is just like a boat for the student..The student can use him to cross the troubled waters of his academic and personal growth..Once the student reach the other shore, the teacher's role is over.. Of course, the quality of the teacher determines how safely the student reaches the other shore.Its the responsibility of the teacher to ensure that the students in born creativity and divinity are not disturbed..