The guru nexus

JUL 08 -

Media glibly drew a unique analogy between two types of binaries constructed around teachers, or academic gurus, and students—as well as political leaders and their followers—on last Tuesday’s gurupurnima. Groups of talented young media persons came to me for my opinion about this formation. Though they came from different streams of media, surprisingly, these young men and women had problematised the same thing. They believed that they saw a strong erosion of authority, respect and centrality of knowledge. I was struck by their common position. As a teacher who has done nothing but teach, read and write for about four decades, I did not have ready answers to their queries. But I was quite impressed by their concern.

Last year, they did not come with similar problems. Instead, it was a simple cultural matter. But this year they added an extra dimension to their guru discourse. A unique kind of guru nexus had overwhelmed them. Their common belief was that followers no longer respect single guru images, and that is a problem. They look at the politics of present-day Nepal where each month parties are going asunder. The raison d’être of their division appears to be the dissatisfaction of a segment within the party with the working style, ideologies followed by their leaders and their wrong-headed party strategies.

These young men and women were carrying a whole list of factors that triggered the divisions within parties, but interestingly, they did not have any such list of factors that erode relationships between academic teachers and students. Without mincing words, I replied to the first question that the principal spirit of following gurus in politics is agenda, which is shown in public and is guided by a sense of presentism, whereas the spirit of honouring gurus in educational establishments—except in specific political and rough times—is shaped by contemplations about knowledge in moments of loss and achievements, which happens spiritually here and even in remote times and spaces.

The other point of irony is that although we are talking about erosions in the faith and tradition, we are going strong to this day by critiquing, deploring the loss of the value of guru respect and, most important of all, by expanding the sphere of the guru-chela binary to cover politics. Divisions within the communists, especially the Maoist parties, struck the media where they see a departure from a tradition of following a guru. There is a caveat here. Political parties, especially the communists who hold ideologies as the strongest forte of unity and action, need a person—or two or three at the most—who controls the formation and doles out instructions and commands for the purpose of unity. But in the post-world such monolithic control is eroding. Such erosion could be a weakness, but that could also be a new strength. Perhaps the same holds true in the case of the academic institutions where the traditional avatar of a teacher is no longer the factor of edu cational command and singular dissemination of knowledge. I stress, once again, that educational guru-chela relationship is the most private affair. It is the story not of party agenda, but of the atmosphere of the mind.

The attributes of a guru as held for about three millennia in South Asia are no longer the same. He is not revered for his vast knowledge; the cyber culture and Google search will do that for them. The innateness of his wisdom and the originary of a remover of ignorance remains an actively practised archetype. That tradition has changed but not diminished. Guru, as the source of liberation, is seen in both education and, more importantly, in politics. What you achieve with the guru figures is a subject of assessments. I do not believe that we should look at the Indic Hindu-Buddhist tradition of scripted traditions only. In Limbu culture, for example, the Fedangwa and Shaamba are guru characters who inherit and bequeath a tradition of knowledge and poetry down the line. This is given as an example of intervention in the Indic scripted tradition. The roles of acharyasor, the ritual preceptors, and the guru himself, who performed their roles in mathas and monasteries, appear to be performed in non-Hindu Buddhist traditions and spaces, too.

Research has shown that not many spaces of Guru maths have been found in the sub-continent. A few sites in central India are recorded and discussed. A guru’s math is a non-descript, semi-dilapidated site existing beside sumptuously constructed temples financed by rich devotees. The huge temples of the cult gurus should not be confused with the humble maths of gurus that remained spaces of wisdom. That gap is precisely the site of erosion. That is both a psychological and physical phenomenon. There are cultural forms like gurus, abbots and lamas in Hinduism, Christ-ianity and Buddhism, respectively, but the guru played not the role of a link between god and man, but called himself the avatar of Shiva in terms of assuming authority. But he did not claim territories, nor did he wield weapons. So essentially, guru claimed cosmogonic formation of his authority. That left guru’s authority open to interpretation, rejection and even total forgetfulness. Today, Nepali you ths are intrigued precisely by that openness, that non-authority and that continuum of guru, which does not claim anything by ways of coercions or any kind of propelling physical interventions.

It is not proper, therefore, to compare the open guru factor with political authorities and ideologies. As a guru with four decades of experience, my ontology is my karma, or what I did and have been doing so far. I feel I am still a guru, which means I am not a politician or any bureaucrat. I feel my guru character both externally and internally becoming alive. Externally, I am visible and draw comments of respect mostly from erstwhile and some current students, as well as from a community that has accepted me in that role. But I, as guru, hide a human psyche. When I see former students—especially those I helped to grow and become scholars, those whom I helped to find spaces in foreign and native educational institutions and whom I inspired to write and publish—who treat me as an invisible entity and nudge past me in the city, I feel shattered. I even cry in secluded spaces. But I am nothing else now. And

being a guru of the erstwhile or

present times is my meditation, my joy and my meaningful nothingness. I precisely write about that experience in literature for reading and for theatre productions. I watch my guru self as audience.

I am using my persona here to say that though we may see some similarities between politicians and gurus in terms of the erosion of central influence, I think politics follows broadly a course of power and ideological conflicts; education follows the quiet course of knowledge, love, authority and sublime tears.

Source: http://www.ekantipur.com/2012/07/08/oped/the-guru-nexus/356793/