I would like to thank my friend.
She taught me not to judge people based on the past.
I think I’d like to thank my yoga teacher
for dealing with my mental and physical inflexibilities. [Laughs]
I would like to thanks my maths teacher.
She made me look at the subject that I hated in a completely different perspective.
I’d like to thank my grandmother, she’s been telling me very great stories about saints.
I would like to thank the whole universe, because that’s always the best teacher.
My Tamil teacher.
My dance teacher.
My physics teacher.
My grandfather.
Teacher inside myself.
My teacher always who’s, you know, so persistent and so prominent in my life is my mother.
The first teacher ever in my life was my mom.
That would be my mother actually,
because she’s been one teacher who stayed with me, and is still with me.
I mean, she's 96 years old.
My grandfather, who is extremely ill, and his leg got amputated,
so he became almost like a child, and my mother has taken care of him like a baby.
He was her father-in-law, and not many daughters-in-law have the comfort,
or that relationship with their father-in-law, but she did everything for him,
and when I mean everything – right from feeding him,
to everything that you can think of,
and during his, you know, last few days he called my mum,
and he folded his hands, and he said that, you know, you’re my mother.
You've taken care of me, and you’re my mother, and thank you for that.
My guru Pandit Shankar Ghosh has been an incredible inspiration for me.
He would tell little stories in Tabla language.
Little boy who goes every day to school, the gateman says, “Go home, it’s a holiday.”
And he is so excited, he dances his way back home.
So he goes... [Sings]
“Mommy, it’s a holiday!” And then then he runs out to play,
and mommy makes him study, and he runs out again. [Sings]
One teacher whom I particularly remember with great fondness is Professor Jayant Prabhu.
What I loved about him is that he taught the subject with such passion and with such discipline,
that even if you didn’t know anything about chemistry, you would fall in love with it.
And to be able to do that requires a great mastery,
and I learned that when you want to teach something and you want to be a great teacher,
you should have great mastery over the subject.
I think that life is so big, and it’s not possible
you can say only one person has taught you everything.
I think every day you learn something.
Sadhguru: A teacher can be either a source of information, or a source of transformation.
This is something I realized through a novice teacher when I was in high school.
Every teacher was a game; a new one, especially, was for sure a big game. [Laughs]
This is her first class in the school.
She is in our class, which is the worst place to start off. [Laughs]
So, when she came and stood next to my bench,
I was generous to open up my fountain pen
and give out the entire quantity of ink that I had on to her white starched sari,
which just soaked it up.
And she didn’t realize, she walked around with that patch behind her,
and... everybody was giggling.
Later on, after the lunch hour, I was asked to come to the staff room.
Staff room was not a rare place for me to go. [Laughs]
I knew somebody has squealed about this.
Then when I went there, she asked for my pen. I gave my pen.
She took an ink bottle, filled up my pen, closed it, and gave to me.
I said, “Thank you, ma'am,” and came back.
But this built such a strong bond with her that she became my favorite teacher,
and I realized what the world throws at you is not your choice,
but what you make out of it is entirely yours.
I think it stayed with me. [Laughs]