Greatest lesson in learning

Being a teacher, I am wonderfully blessed to be surrounded by the future always. Young women and men, bubbling with ideas, hopes, dreams, ambitions, aspirations, frustrations, sadness.. it's all there for me to study.

Let me share something I feel strongly about. Something about the fine art of being a great learner. While we all know that learning continuously is important for us to lead a fulfilled and continuously satisfied life in this human society (that is itself continuously and in many complex ways - changing), very few of us actually know the secret of fast, deep, long-lasting learning.

It is a secret I am going to let out today. The luckiest few of us may be knowing it already. Some of us may have experienced it sometime in our lives, but unluckily would have missed out on analysing it adequately. Most of us will not have even experienced it.

I learnt it when my father taught me this little, profound secret while studying in the 5th standard at the St.Paul's School Indore. My having done miserably in the 6-monthly exams made Daddy really furious at me. He took it upon himself to coach me for several weeks, one-to-one. Imagine, a fully qualified, respected Otorhinolaryngologist (ENT surgeon) teaching his 10 year old son History, Civics, and Basic Science!

So he kept teaching me all those mornings, sacrificing at times his surgery calls. I kept learning. He kept on gently pushing some values in my about-to-get-adolescent head, that was already buzzing with hormones preparing to go on the teenage rampage.

And today, after all these decades, I remember clearly the one most important lesson he taught me.

He said : "अच्छा सीखने की सबसे बड़ी शर्त है अपने शिक्षक के प्रति पूर्ण समर्पण। कोई शक नहीं, कोई सवाल नहीं। केवल पूर्ण समर्पण।"

Translated, it means, the biggest pre-condition of being a great learner (and having a great learning experience) is total surrender to the process of learning, and complete agreement with your teacher, on everything. No questions, no disagreements, no doubts. Just agreement.

The human mind learns best when it follows this simple rule.

For years together, I could never bring myself to believe this. I always found it kind of sinister, or communist. I thought that the Western model of thinking - doubt everything around you and the truth will shine forth, must be correct as they (the Westerners) are the ones who gave us the Theory of Evolution, The Microprocessor, and The Paleontological proofs of man's historic journey. (Yes, I know I was being simplistic)

How wrong I was! What wrong threads of logic I was trying to connect. Every single man or woman who has contributed to modern science has been a complete believer in something. Every single great scientist - Einstein included - so deeply believed in something that it kept propelling them forward. They completely surrendered to their beliefs, and kept plodding on and on. This "something" was their teacher.

In the broadest sense of the word, today I realise what my Dad must have meant then. The "teacher" he was speaking about was definitely not just a human being. It could be God herself. It could be mother nature. It could be your friend, your lover, your books, your wife, your child, your professor, your boss, your associate ... anyone!

Dear reader, I strongly recommend : surrender completely to the one you think can teach you how to learn. That's the surest, fastest, strongest way to grow!

And yes, this "something" can change from time to time, situation to situation.

Looking at the streams, the grasses, the raindrops

The rays of Sun shining through the dusty glasspanes

The frogs croaking, the crickets dancing, the ants marching

The man's search was on - who could have made it all?

Without realising, for once

That the creator is there, in each of His creations

The creations are He, the creator is the creation

But he kept disbelieving, and kept looking, and kept looking
For he could not surrender, he could not rejoice.

~