Beacons of Light

In school (Don Bosco, Matunga), we had something called a calendar, which was basically a smallish blue coloured book, with the portions for every year, a (duh!) calendar, so we could enter into it like a diary stuff that we wanted to, our marks in various tests and exams AND the Remarks page. Here sadistic teachers would put remarks about us when we didn't do something they wanted us to do or did something they didn't want us to do :)... like homework, or chatter in the class, etc.

You then had to get it signed by equally sadistic parents who would come up with very creative ways of making life miserable in exchange for their signature... I was too bhola to even think of forging signatures, besides parents had supernatural powers when it came to finding out stuff you really wanted to keep hidden!

Thats where grandparents came in... my grand dad would look at the remark, raise his eye brows, and silently sign it, almost as if it was an autograph book :)

Life revolved around the remarks page... You couldn't get more than 12 remarks in a year, or your parents would be summoned by the principal, and that would be REALLY embarrassing! And, you cannot get more than 3 behaviour remarks (talking in class, hit someone, etc) in a year coz, then the class teacher called up the parents ... stuff like that...

Now, there were teachers who were slightly english challenged... our hindi teacher Mrs Sampat for example, would only write "homework not done" in the remarks page, regardless of the offense... When i look back now, i see that the weak teachers- the ones who couldn't hold a class's attention or simply didn't know how to teach the subject and were doing just a "job" relished this power that they wielded over us hapless students who had to suffer them.

The really good teachers, the ones who bring a smile to our face and dampness in our eyes even when we think of them 20 years later, never ever gave a remark... They didn't need to discipline us at all. They commanded our respect and love, never demanded it... They were the ones who we looked at and thought, i would love to become like this... I guess the others just served as examples of how not to be!



And i know that we all are, at some point or the other, teachers to others... And as people who know how to meditate, we become teachers to the world at large. We become teachers of Life, of how to Be. Of how to tread gently on our beloved planet... When people see how we lead our lives, they need to get inspired and feel: Man!! I would love to be like this! What a wonderful life!

Sadhana, Seva and Satsang make us the best that we can be... Beacons of Hope and pure Light, radiating peace, joy and love to all, opening possibilities in others to live their Highest, teaching all to Be...

Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa