Few verses in South Asia's intellectual tradition have travelled across centuries with as much relevance as Bhagat Kabir's celebrated couplet:

Guru Govind dou khade, kake lagoon paay?

Balihari guru aapne, Govind diyo batay.

"If both my teacher and God stood before me, whose feet should I touch first? I bow first to my teacher, for it was the teacher who showed me the way to God."

Read literally, the verse may appear unsettling. Read as Kabir intended, as metaphor and spiritual insight, it becomes one of the finest tributes ever paid to education. Kabir was not placing the teacher above the Divine. He was acknowledging a profound truth: before one can seek ultimate truth, one must first learn how to seek. The teacher does not replace the destination; the teacher reveals the path.

When I completed my PhD, I dedicated my thesis to one of my teachers, and Kabir's words inspired that dedication. It was not a theological statement but an intellectual acknowledgement. Whatever ability I possess to........

© The Express Tribune