Dorna; A Selfish Icon of Guru

गुरूर्ब्रह्मा गुरूर्विष्णु र्गुरूदेवो महेश्वरः।

गुरुः साक्षात परं ब्रह्म तस्मै श्री गुरवे नमः॥

Guru Brahma Gurur Vishnu

Guru Devo Maheshwaraha

Guru Saakshat Para Brahma

Tasmai Sree Gurave Namaha

Meaning: Guru is verily the representative of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. He creates, sustains knowledge and destroys the weeds of ignorance. I salute such a Guru.

This above mantra really glorifies the Teachers Day and this is our culture- purely eastern culture. However, I’m not satisfied with such clichés. Let me trace out the myths.

According to the Mahabharat, one day, Pandavas are out hunting, and their dog wanders off and comes upon Ekalavya. The dog starts barking and to shut him up Eklavya shoots seven arrows around his mouth and zips it up. The dog is not hurt and returns whimpering to the Pandavas. They are amazed at this extraordinary feat. Eklavya informs them innocently that he is Dorna’s pupil. Arjun, Dorna’s star student, is shocked to hear that his teacher has a secret pupil, who might pose a challenge to him.

Dorna is just as puzzeled when he hears this and goes to see his invisible pupil, who is honored and delighted to see his teacher.

‘If you are my pupil, then you will have to pay me my teacher’s fee,’ says Dorna.

‘Command me, my guru,’ says Ekalavya. There is nothing I shall not give my guru.’

‘Give me your right thumb,’ commands Dorna.

Eklavya keeps his promise, cuts off his thumb and gives it to his supposed teacher. Arjun is relieved.

We are horrified at Dorna’s command which imprints an image of ruthless teacher forever in our eyes.

Eklavya’s foolish act has been glorified as an icon of a good student. The Mahabharata has so many references of the teacher student relationship. When Arjuna is in the war against Kauravas, he hesitates to fight against of his teacher and relatives. But Krishna, tactfully persuades him by giving long speech of eternity.

While tracing back to the Upanisads and Purans, we can find several examples of selfish relationship between the teacher and the student. So, today, we have commoditized this relation on the same base. There are only few people who truly respect his/her teachers. If Dorna type teachers exist in our society, Krishna’s suggestion to Arjun in the battlefield is cent percent pragmatic.

We people are selfish by nature; you and me, all. We are often guided by sinister desire. It is the desire to be honored, to be loved, to be respected, to be profited and many more. When we see obstacles on the way of fulfilling such desires, we don’t see any bond as such. Here, I don’t mean to disrespect my teachers or, the students. But it is the fact that the teacher student relation itself is give and take relation and in such relation bond becomes commodity.

They say, “A guru is he who changes the life with his knowledge.” I agree with this. There are many gurus in our life who directly and indirectly involve in changing our life. No one can success alone. Behind everyone’s success there is a queue of people who have worked as scaffolding. They are all our gurus and we must respect them.

Dorna is selfish icon of guru who asks the thumb of Eklavya to make his pupil Arjun victorious since he has given his words to all. He gets scared with Eklavya’s skill on arrow shooting. On the one hand, he denies teaching Eklavya due to his lower caste; and on the other hand he asks for his thumb. What can be so devilish act than this which we are worshipping as Guru. It’s time to change our perspective on the word Guru. A beggar, a tinker, a musketeer can be guru in different situations. Parents can’t be guru only by giving birth of children. They should fulfill minimum responsibility of parenthood. In place of parents, children can be a guru of their parents. We should break the statues of generalization. A student can be a guru for his teacher.  A true reciprocity must be there in between teacher and the students. Teachers are selling their ideas, skills and knowledge and the students are buying them in the skyrocketing prices. Therefore, after buying and selling, there is no bond at all. It’s a straightforward matter between teachers and the students as it is in between the dealer and the customer.

Anyway, modern technology has not only isolated the people from human relation, it sometimes helped to bring people together. On this auspicious occasion of Guru Purnima, many students have used the wall of Facebook to remember their teachers. Besides, there might be phone calls, sms, emails twits, skypes etc. thanks to this technology. It sometimes sucks and sometimes rocks. It rocks today. Thanks to all my students.

In my life, there are many gurus who have really inspired, taught and pushed me ahead on my journey.  I, heartily, salute them.