Certainly, you are the right person for this job It is your good fortune that you have chosen such a noble profesion. There is great praise for a teacher in our scriptures. In one of the Sanskrit hymns, the teacher is compared with Brahma, Vishnu, and Maheshvara. Therefore, you should never forget that you are doing a great service in moulding the lives and characters of numerous students within the four walls of the classroom. Students come to you with great expectations that they will get something purposeful in life from you. Your duty is not only to teach them syllabus, but to help them in building character. Students coming out from educational institutions with character and integrity alone can build this great nation. If you can do that in your humble way, you will be doing immense service to your nation and to the youth.
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A lit candle alone can light another. Therefore, at the very outset, you must have firm conviction in the power of goodness; and it should express through your life and character. Sri Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita (3:21). 'Whatever a great leader does, other persons do that very thing! Which ever standard he sets, the world follows it.' Your life itself will be a great source of inspiration for the students. Teaching without practising will not produce any positive results. Modern students are very intelligent. They will watch your life and character. If they do not find those things in practice, they will not care for your words.
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If you sincerely love your students, and are really interested in their welfare, they will certainly follow your footsteps. You must develop infinite patience and forbearance. Never find fault with your students for their shortcomings and mistakes, rather highlight their good qualities and successes. Swami Vivekananda said: 'If you speak kind words to boys and encourage them, they are bound to improve in time. If you can give them positive ideas, people will grow up the be men and learn to stand on their own legs. In language and literature, in poetry and art, in everything we must point out not the mistakes that people are making in their thoughts and actions, but the way in which they will gradually be able to do these things better. Pointing out mistakes wounds a man's feelings. We have seen how Sri Ramakrishna would encourage even those whom we considered as worthless and change the very course of their lives thereby! His very method of teaching was a unique phenomenon. He never destroyed a single man's special inclinations. He gave words of hope and encouragement even to the most degraded of persons and lifted them up. We, too, must follow in his footsteps and life all up and rouse them.'
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You should be able to enter into the hearts of your students. they should find in you their friend, philosopher, and guide. Then alone will they open their hearts and freely express their problems. Your approach to their problems should be positive, and you should try your utmost to help them in solving their problems, if it is within your reach. This intimacy and mutual love and affection will strengthen the relationship between the taught and the teacher. Once you put them on right track, they will grow up as real men and women of character and integrity. They will remain grateful to you throughout their lives for your great service rendered to them. For you, there will be job satisfaction bringing in peace and happiness alround.... Swami Srikantananda
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