Prabhupadas advice to teachers
Dayananda das: I specifically remember a meeting in which some of the teachers asked Prabhupada's advice about teaching. At that time, I seem to remember there were two camps. One camp really wanted to be very loving to the students, they somehow wanted to control the students through affection or through love, and then another camp of teachers wanted to be very strict with the students. I remember very clearly that Prabhupada said that we needed to communicate affection to the students. I can't remember the precise words that Prabhupada used, but I remember very clearly getting the message from Prabhupada that the teacher needs to have real affection for the student and he needs to be able to communicate that affection to the student. Otherwise how will the student take what the teacher is giving? There may certainly be discipline, but this real affection coming from the teacher to the student has to be there.
The other thing that happened before I arrived there was that Prabhupada had visited a couple of years prior to this visit and he wrote a letter in which he said, "If the students are beaten or if the stick is used on the students, I will use the stick on the teacher." So my understanding of that was always that the teachers should not consider themselves the highest authority and they shouldn't misuse their position as teachers and they should always be mindful of the fact that they are answerable to a higher authority, and that whatever they administer to the students that they certainly will have to either enjoy or suffer themselves in the future. Also, what's prominent in my mind is that Prabhupada always loved children. Before, during and after my gurukula experience, I always remember Prabhupada being very affectionate to children and to anyone who was in the dependent situation.
Reference: Following Srila Prabhupada – Remembrances by Yadubara dasa
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