Besides this, the Master knows His pupil's past, and His pupil's
future, and guides him through the present from the past into the
future. The pupil knows but little beyond the present, and he does not
understand that great love which draws its inspiration from the memory
of the past and shapes itself to mould the powers of the future. He may
even sometimes doubt the wisdom of the love which guides itself
according to a pattern which his eyes cannot see.
That which I have said above may seem a very high ideal for the
relation between a teacher and pupil down here. Yet the difference
between them is less than the difference between a Master and His
disciple. The lower relation should be a faint reflection of the higher,
and at least the teacher may set the higher before himself as an ideal.
Such an ideal will lift all his work into a higher world, and all school
life will be made happier and better because the teacher has set it
before him.
II. DISCRIMINATION
The next very necessary qualification for the teacher is Discrimination.
My Master said that the most important knowledge was "the knowledge of
God's plan for men, for God has a plan, and that plan is evolution."
Each boy has his own place in evolution, and the teacher must try to see
what that place is, and how he can best help the boy in that place. This
is what the Hindus call Dharma, and it is the teacher's duty to find out
the boy's dharma and to help him to fulfil it.
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