When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. When the student is truly ready, the teacher will disappear. - Lao Tzu
Teacher, guru, guide, mentor.....whatever name you use, is an extremely important person in anyone's life. No matter how much a person is inherently gifted, a guru is required to fine tune the talent and show the way. The most successful people in the world owe their success to a guru no matter what the field of work. This guru can come in many forms. It can be in the form of a teacher / professor in school or college, a parent, an elder a friend or a senior at work. It is for this very reason that a teacher or a guru has been equated with God in the Indian culture.
But the question is, how much intervention from a guru is desired and at what time should the guru let go? After all, the student wouldn't want to be dependent on the guru for life nor would a good guru want that. The best of the gurus have been those who have made the student independent at the earliest. Is there a thumb rule for this? Is there any calibrated measure to determine the exact point at which the guru should back off?
I don't think so. However, we can remember one simple thing. A thing that we keep in mind while cooking - 'Add salt to taste.' Yes, you read it right. When we cook, we add salt to the ingredients. Different dishes and ingredients require different amount of salt.
What is the role of the salt? To bring out the taste of the ingredient. Too little salt and the dish becomes bland. Too much salt and the dish becomes salty and we cannot relish the flavor of the dish. Put salt in just the right quantity and the dish tastes just right. We then taste the inherent flavor of the dish brought out by the right quantity of the salt. The interesting thing is that if the salt is less, we can always add it later on. However, if it is too much, in most of the cases the dish is ruined.
A guru's intervention in the life of the student should be like this. Just the right amount to bring out the unique qualities of the student. The student should not be left midway till the inherent gifts are nurtured nor should the guru hang around for too long otherwise the student gets overpowered. The guru does not want the student half baked but at the same time the student should not end up as a copy of the guru. Just like salt, if it is felt that further instruction is needed it can be given. However, the results of overpowering intervention often take a lifetime to shake off.
And this is the biggest decision that each guru has to make for each student. "Should I let go of the student now?" "Should I keep this student under my tutelage for some more time?" "Is this student ready?"
These are the most important questions that the guru needs to answer and get the answers right in the best interest of the students. The best gurus have been those who got the answers to these questions right.
Dronacharya did not create Drona 2.0. He created Arjun. Similarly Mr. Ramakant Achrekar did not create Ramakant 2.0. He created Sachin Tendulkar. They both knew when to back off.
