Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c4.172

c4.172

A development of the relation between teacher and pupil, which has already been sketched, was the exaltation of the teacher to such a position of reverence that he was worshipped by his pupil.¹ In the schools of the early Vedānta the teacher, or *guru*, was always one who was himself supposed to have reached emancipation, and thus to have come to the realization that he is Brāhman. In his devotion, or *bhakti*, for Brāhman it was but a short step for the pupil to feel *bhakti* also for the *guru*, who was thus identified with Brāhman. This is referred to as early as the *Śvetāśvatara Upanishad*² (perhaps about the fourth century B.C.), but it received a great emphasis in all the chief *bhakti* sects (Vaishṇava, Śaiva, or other) from at least the seventh century A.D. In these the disciple is taught to worship his *guru* as God. This was of course an honour paid to a religious teacher, but it had an effect upon the relation of all pupils and teachers, and helps to explain the high respect which students of to-day have even for a teacher of secular subjects.