Do you think that I will be of any use to my students in developing their personality? _Question asked by a teacher.

Answer:

Certainly, you are the right person for this job.  It is your good fortune that you have chosen such a noble profession.  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).  "What ever a great leader does, other persons do that very thing!  Whichever 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 to 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 lift 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 Srikanthananda

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Our children are so sensitive that we are afraid of telling them anything. We do not know how they will react. How should we deal with them?._ Question asked by a Parent

Answer :

The first thing is to set an example through one's own life.  If your life is pure and disciplined, even without your telling they will assimilate those qualities.  Secondly, you must give them certain amount of freedom.  Do not try to be a policeman, always watching and suspecting their movements.  At the same time, you must keep a watch over them from a distance.  If you sense something wrong with them, first verify the truth before arriving at a conclusion.  You can easily collect the facts from their teachers and friends by occasionally visiting their working place or school or college.  No human being is perfect.  It is our nature to make mistakes.  No one does it intentionally; it is out of ignorance.  Naturally, children due to their lack of experience in this world will commit mistakes.  You must learn to forgive them.  "To err is human, but to forgive is divine", so goes a popular saying.  After a certain age, they should be treated as friends and handled with great love and respect.  As far as possible, do not take recourse to corporeal punishment and harsh scolding.  Develop tremendous patience to correct them in a friendly way.  Your genuine love and concern for them will certainly bring about a change in their behaviour.  Give them positive ideas, good literature to study, expose them to good surroundings.  Once you provide them with good food, they will not go in search of bad._ Swami Srikanthananda.

How far can I depend on others to develop my personality ?_ Question asked by a young student.

Answer :

This is the most crucial time of your precious life.  You are young and there is tremendous youth energy in you.  You should be very alert and careful.  This is the right time for you to mould your life and character.  Young people always want freedom, without knowing the meaning of the term.  You are still young and your mind is not yet fully matured.  Restless mind and turbulent senses will always try to pull you down.  Giving freedom to such minds and senses is a sign of weakness and certainly harmful.  Since you are not able to discriminate between the right and the wrong, it is always better for you to seek advice of elders, specially your parents and teachers in serious matters.  They are your well-wishers.  Their mature advice will certainly help you to follow the right path.  Even if they scold you for your mistakes, it is for your good.  Since they love you, and are interested in your well being, you should take it in the right spirit._Swami Srikantananda