Divine Blessing and Words of Advice to the Outgoing Students

Discourse of Sathya Sai Baba during the Summer Course in Spirituality and Indian Culture
held for College Students at Brindavan, Whitefield, Bangalore District in May/June 1974
Published by Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust
Web posted at Jun 20, 2002

Will the tanks get filled just because a few drops of rain have come? Are we going to relieve our thirst by taking a few drops of water from a spring? Just because we hold our breath, will it be possible to get plenty of water from that? By burning a small quantity of paint, can we get coal from that? These are not possible things.

This land of ours has earned fame which has travelled far and wide beyond its borders. The land of ours has given birth to men of great reputation; this land of ours has driven away the western rulers and earned for itself independence; this land of ours has given birth to many sons who are learned and scholars, this land of ours has shown great capacity and attainment in many branches like music, Sastras, great ability in fine arts and sculpture. We have also promoted and sustained things which are aesthetic and beautiful. The land of ours has been the source of Dharma and good conduct. Bharat, our motherland, had the great fortune of generating Dharma and good conduct. The responsibility of maintaining these and protecting them in the future rests on the shoulders of you young people.

Premaswarupas, students, boys and girls, other people who are assembled here this afternoon! Our country Bharat is one which has handed over spiritual strength to all other parts of the world. While civilisation, under the pretext of modernity, is spreading all over and is bringing about many changes in man's life, yet we see that the basic spiritual aspects are not undergoing any change. From this, we should learn and understand how strong and how very deeply rooted the spiritual aspects are. It is not possible for anyone to stop or slow down this stream of Jnana or spiritual wisdom. As this spirituality goes further and further, we will recognise that the so called individual freedom advocated by modern civilisation leads one only to paths of ignorance. How long will this kind of foolishness sustain to cover the spiritual aspects? How long can walls which have no foundation stand? From time immemorial our ideas and traditions have stood firmly on the foundations of Vedas and religious aspects and we have had the strength of spiritual gems behind them. Such foundations cannot be shaken by modern ideas.

The so called educated people are caught in the fangs of lust and desire and are not able to come out of these clutches. What one learns these days cannot be called education as it is not accompanied by the necessary purification. From time to time it is necessary to introduce reforms in education. If man is not able to take good education to his heart and if his education has no culture behind it, he will be worse than the uneducated washerman. A person who is educated in many branches thinks that he has great wisdom, but in reality he does not know himself. Such a person cannot give up the meanness of his manner. If one really goes into the details of the kind of education which one is getting today, one finds that it is of an argumentative type not helping man to become wise. Why submit yourself to such education? You should really go through such education which will lead you to immortality. When we ask the question 'Who is the blind man in the world?' then the answer comes that 'An educated person who in spite of his education does wrong things' is the blind man. There is no meaning whatsoever in feeling proud that we are educated persons.

The kind of knowledge alone can be called real education which will enable you to open your heart and reveal to you the nature of Atma. Education which does not enable you to understand the divine aspect and education which does not enable you to control your sensory organs cannot be termed education at all. Education should give you a divine feeling and divine power and enable you to understand the daily events which occur in man's life and understand the permanent truth which links man's life to the environment and community around him. True education has its form composed as character, truth and conduct. Character, truth, conduct and ability to sacrifice are a must in any education and if what you learn is devoid of them, it becomes worthless. True education gives you humility and from humility you get the deservedness and from such deservedness you will get wealth and from wealth you will get Dharma, and from Dharma you will get happiness in this temporal world as well as in the spiritual world.

Premaswarupas! Dharma is not something which has been created by man. Man's ideas have not got the authority to give shape or to change the form of Dharma. You can only follow Dharma. It is not something that you can change. Dharma has been in existence much earlier than you and therefore you have to follow Dharma and Dharma is not going to change for you. A boy student can select a girl as his companion and a girl can select a boy as her companion but no one can select and exercise his choice regarding Dharma. Dharma is like a mother. One can choose a wife but no one can choose a mother. Dharma is in the same position s one's mother is . We have no choice and we cannot transform Dharma. We have to follow Dharma and enjoy the fruits of Dharma. If there are people who say that there is nothing like Dharma it is like their saying that there is nothing like a mother for them. Man is using such meaningless words and is undertaking to follow a path which is utterly wrong. This country of ours, Bharat, which used to be smiling everyday is passing through many difficulties now and the main reasons for it are our modern ideas which have distorted all our thoughts. The students of today must push aside such foolishness and ideas which are totally wrong and should be prepared to lead our country to a prosperous situation for following the prescribed Dharma.

Students! The duty to protect what has been told to you in the past one month lies with you. The first thing you should do is to accept your mother and father in your home as living Gods and satisfy them and keep them happy. Mother and father will be hoping and dreaming to see their children have good moral character and in order that their dreams may materialise they will put themselves to many troubles. Do not undertake to cause pain to such mother and father. This should be the very first good quality which the education you receive should give you. After that, make an attempt to understand the sacred principles of our culture and try and put them into practice. If we simply go on using the word Dharma and not put into practice even a bit of what goes under the name Dharma, all that will simply be Adharma. Today the situation everywhere is such that we think of one thing, say something else and do something entirely different. Such things are not going to promote peace in the world.

How can one get peace if one holds the atom bomb in his hand and simply goes on shouting that peace is wanted in the world. So also if you always practice Adharma and keep on shouting that Dharma is to be protected, how is Dharma going to be protected?

Students! Your hearts are very sacred and pure. In this pure and unwavering heart you have to fill the sacred aspect of the Paramatma. Today you are all wearing white clothes and you are all assembled in Whitefield. This means that just as you are wearing white clothes externally, you must make your hearts pure and white internally. You should remember that the characteristic feature of education that you have acquired here is to make you clean and pure both internally and externally. Further, all of you who have to become the future citizens of this country and who have to uphold the dignity of the country should also uphold Dharma and thereby uplift the entire country. You should be prepared to, if you find a person who preaches peace and Dharma but himself practices violence and Adharma, give him a good beating. Students should be prepared to punish anyone who has his legs and yet behaves like a lame person, anyone who has his eyes and yet behaves like a blind person, anyone who has his mental strength and yet behaves like a weak minded person. The word punish used here should not be interpreted as causing physical harm or trouble. The word punish here means that you must give them good ideas and good habits and enable them to distinguish right from wrong.

Having in your mind the sacred aspect of Saraswati in several forms such as Brihaspati, Vachaspati, and Prajapati, you should see that you do not behave in an excited manner shouting slogans on the street. If you do so you will be promoting anarchy and not the divine spirit which you are entrusted with. Do not make a wrong approach to the educational institutions. If you find other students doing this, you have to tell them that the result of education cannot be what they are indulging in. You should take the right attitude and you must help other students to take the right attitude. It is possible that you have some inconveniences in your college. You should then go to the persons in authority and see that the inconveniences are removed. Instead of this, if you take the wrong path and get excited, you will bring disrespect to the very name and avocation of a student and you will be abusing the culture ands training that you have received. By following anarchic practices, you are simply ruining the reputation of the whole country. Excitement is not a good thing. It is a characteristic of weakness. It is only a weak person that gets excited. In their excitement, some say that they have achieved their objective but this achievement is often only temporary. If you look at a problem in a peaceful manner and if you spend the necessary time in thinking over it and also go into it in depth and arrive at a proper solution, the result that you attain will have an amount of permanency.

Students! Some of you have expressed the feeling that you have spent a very happy one month and because the time has now come for you to leave Brindavan, you have tears in your eyes and that such tears have manifested themselves in the form of raindrops. Than having a feeling that leaving Swami is causing you pain and hurt, it is better to have in your mind that the ideas acquired here should be put into practice in your daily life. Many learned people and scholars have told you several things that will give happiness in your own mind. These teachers will have been shown the necessary gratitude by you if you adopt and accept at least a few of their teachings in your daily life. That is the best return you can give to your teachers. Do not have the idea that Brindavan is a summer camp and your home is somewhere else. This is not the right idea. You should think that you are in your home when you are in Brindavan, and you should think that the members of your home and members of Brindavan all constitute one family. There is no question of separation when you develop such an ideal. Although from a bodily aspect one can say that we are going away from each other, from the point of view of closeness of the heart, it can always be said that we are very close to each other.

Students! You should not forget all the happiness that you have had here immediately after you reach your home. If you forget all the happiness that you have acquired here for the past one month in that manner, there is no benefit at all. After you reach home, you will find that there are Sathya Sai organisations doing spiritual work. I am hoping that you will join such organisations and recall to your mind all that you have learnt here and continue to live in this experience. Only when the boys and girls who participated in the summer camp go back and pass on the bliss and happiness which they have acquired here to others with whom they come in contact, can they be said to put into practice what they have learnt here. The kind of happiness and the good ideals that you have learnt here must be retained by you till the end of your life enabling you to enjoy your life.

One student expressed the idea that a workshop had been started in Brindavan on the 20th of May and that a large number of cars which were out of order and which were in need of servicing had been brought and left in this workshop and that during the one month they had all been repaired and that they are now returning home. This statement should not end with a mere grouping of words. You must realise in practice that you are going back as repaired cars and then there is some justification for these words. There is no satisfaction if they are mere words. If you can keep them as repaired cars and take the cars along the royal path and not put them back in bylanes and bad streets, then you should have really meant what you are saying. If these cars which have now been repaired go along by lanes and you avoid the royal road they will again get bad and you will have to return to the workshop for repair and frequent repairs will in fact render the car useless and as junk it will become irreparable.

Students! You have now reconditioned the cars of your body and having reconditioned the car you must also drive it well. Because you are not good drivers, the cars were getting frequently out of order. The car is not kept in a good condition unless you have a good driver. Having now reconditioned your cars, take Sai as your good driver who will drive your car for the rest of your lives. Then the car of your lives will not be spoilt. You have listened to many good things. There is no need for me to keep on repeating these things again and again. I am hoping that you will constantly think of what you have learnt here and put it into practice.