Give a man an idli, and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to make idli and you can feed him for a lifetime! It couldn’t be truer, especially in a land where the Guru-Shishya parampara was born. The transformational power that knowledge wields can change not just a person’s life, but also their family and at a more macro level, society.
We run into hundreds, if not thousands of people during the course of our lives, and every interaction is an opportunity for exchange of ideas, thoughts, and so much more. We are constantly being influenced by these interactions, some consciously, and some sub consciously, and therefore every interaction becomes an opportune teaching moment. The idea isn’t to preach, but it is to conduct ourselves in such a way that it benefits the other person, should they choose to emulate you. Now I know that this can make everything feel very onerous, but this is the burden all of us carry, we wield a tiny fraction of the power that can make or break societies.
One cannot but mention the story of Eklavya, student extraordinaire, who became the best archer just by observing Dronacharya. So whether we realise it nor not, we are constantly exchanging teaching moments with others, and it is far better that we are conscious and purposeful about these, rather than running on autopilot. Money is a convenient mechanism to help those less fortunate. However, donating some of your time to a charity, where you can put your pro bono skills to use will have a far deeper impact, especially if it involves sharing your knowledge with children or youth, whose lives could be transformed.
It is not until you can teach something that you fully master it, for that requires you to have fully digested that concept, because only then you can help someone else understand it. So it is in fact a virtuous cycle, not only are you sharing the knowledge, you are also deepening your understanding, which will no doubt help you when you use it in daily life, at work, or otherwise. Not to forget the free dollops of good karma that your selfless act accrues.
All of us have that spark of the Guru tattva within ourselves, and life presents us with plenty of opportunities where we can allow this innate nature to express itself. Now it’s just a matter of how much we are willing to share, and play our part, no matter how seemingly insignificant, in transforming our nation, one person at a time.
