Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

Do not be conceited because of your studies, What is great about your learning? The hall-mark of education is humility, Realising that what is yet to be learnt is limitless. Shed your ignorance and pride, O witless one! Learn to be humble in pursuing knowledge. STUDENTS! TEACHERS! Today men have invented many types of machinery by their experiments and researches. Science has been pursued with relentless energy. But, being unable to experience peace or happiness, they have become strangers to both. Despite his acquiring the sacred human birth, man is immersed in the pursuit of transient worldly pleasures, forgetting his Divine destiny. Concentrating on scientific investigations, inventing all kinds of mechanical gadgets, man is content to lead a proud but purposeless life. To understand the basic purpose of life, you do not have the right type of education now. Mere worldly knowledge will not promote the cultivation of spiritual and moral values. This secular knowledge does not serve to reach you the secret of human life. If one wishes to bring down a tree he must attack the roots and not the branches. For man to attain his real destination and secure enduring peace and joy secular education is of no avail.

Bharatheeyas in ancient times lived a life of morality and integrity and enjoyed peace and happiness. Students today, disregarding morality and their obligations to society, go astray and ruin their lives. Bharatheeyas have forgotten the essentials of their culture, based on morality and integrity. They cast away their great scriptural texts as trash. Western nations took these, learnt the profound truths contained in them and developed their technical and military skills and sought to give them back to Bharatheeyas. The weapons developed in Germany were based on the texts of the Atharvana Veda. Bharatheeyas today are cultivating a passion for exotic things, ignoring what is good in their own heritage. Students should strive to understand what is great in their own Bharatheeya culture and heritage. Ignoring their own cultural greatness, Bharatheeyas are going abroad to earn money as an end in. itself. No doubt money is necessary, but, is it necessary to go abroad for this purpose? This cannot be the true aim of education. Students should recognise the truth of the saying, "The mother and the Motherland are greater than heaven itself." One who does not believe in this cannot be called a truly educated person. Making use of the education acquired by you, you should serve your country in such a way that it stands out as an example to the world. What perversity is it to neglect one's own house and try to beautify your neigbour's house? Students today are losing their love for the Motherland. The man who cannot proclaim that "This is my native land, this is my mother tongue," is a living corpse. He is no human being at all. People are giving up love for the Motherland and fostering greed for money.

From ancient times, Bharath has held forth to the world great ideals. Spreading the message of spirituality to many countries, Bharath proclaimed the message-Lokas samasthas Sukhino Bhavanthu (May all people be happy). Bharath never permitted the concept of selfishness to prevail. Selfless unity was the message proclaimed in the Vedas: "Let us live together; let us grow together. Let us share our knowledge with others, let us live in harmony and friendliness." Today in Bharath there is no spirit of harmony In ancient India, students, together with secular knowledge, sought spiritual knowledge, regardless of the sacrifices involved, and led purposeful lives. They conducted many investigations to comprehend the mysteries of creation and the secret of human existence. All experiments today are based on yanthras (mechanical devices). But in the olden days, they conducted the enquires with the help of manthras. The truths which they discovered, they proclaimed to the world in strident terms.

It is the duty of Bharatheeyas today to learn something about the great spiritual heritage of Bharath. The ancients practised economy in speech. Students today tend to be loquacious. Excessive speech harms the mind. "Less speech, more happiness." The ancients practised three kinds of silent penance to control speech. The first was Vakmounam (silence of the tongue, the second one was Mano-mounam (silence of the mind) and the third was Maha-mounam (Supreme Silence). Vak mounam (Silence in speech) meant confining one's speech to the limit and the needs of the occasion. By this discipline, excessive talk was avoided. As a result, the power of their speech was conserved and enhanced. Discipline in speech also resulted in truthfulness. Truth speaking served to purify their thoughts. By this means they acquired Siddhi (Realisation of truth) and Jnanasiddhi (acquisition of the highest' wisdom). Therefore purity in speech is vital. It has to be achieved by restraint in speech. Then, there is Mano-mounam (Silence of the mind). The mind is a bundle of thoughts and fancies. These thoughts have to be reduced gradually. When thoughts are reduced, the mind naturally comes under control, like a clock that is unwound. When the activity of the mind is reduced, the power of the Atma manifests itself. As a consequence Buddhi (intellect) becomes more active than the senses. When control of speech and control of the mind have been achieved, the state of Maha-mounam (Supreme Silence) is easily realised. Students should strive to reach the third stage by the disciplines of the first two stages.

I have often told you, "Talk less and study more." What is meant by "study?" Study or education is the process of divinising one's Self. This calls for the cultivation of values in education. This "Education (is) for life." "Life (is) for love." "Love for man." "Man is for Service." "Service for Society." "Society for nation." "Nation for world." "World for peace." Education is for life and not merely for earning a living. This life is for love. Love is God. Live in love. This love should be for all mankind. Today this love is absent. What passes for love is something artificial. Love should emanate from the heart.

What is the purpose of being a man? It is not for leading an animal existence. Man exists for service. Every man has to return to society by way of service what he has received from it. That service should be rendered selflessly in a spirit of sacrifice. Service is thereby converted to spirituality.

Service is to society Society exists for the nation. The nation is a limb of the world. The world should strive for peace. That is the meaning of the benediction Om Shanthi! Shanthi! Shanthi! Why is this Shanthi (Peace) uttered only three times and not more times or less rimes? This refers to peace in three aspects. Adhibhouthika (physical), Adhyathmika (mental) and Adhidhaivika (spiritual). Peace relating to the body, the mind and the Self are invoked by this benediction. Such profound meanings are implicit in the pronouncements of Bharath's sages.

All these are designed to remind us of God and make us seek God-realisation. People imagine that God is an entity far beyond human conception and grasp. That is not true. Divinity is nearer than anything else in the world. If you consider It remote, It will appear distant, but if you regard It as near It will be near. As long as man is conscious of the body, he cannot comprehend a formless Divinity. Hence, he must adore the Divine in human form. If, for instance, a buffalo or a fish thinks of God they can conceive of God only as a huge buffalo or a gigantic, fish. Man also conceives the form of God only in terms of his own human form and attributes. As long as man is attached to the body, he cannot realise God. Only when he sheds his attachment, can he experience the Divine.

As long as he thinks of his body and has human form, man cannot think of something which transcends form and body That is the reason why God incarnates in human form. To man He must appear as human. Only then relationships can be established between the Divine and human beings. If God comes in any other form, man cannot fix his thoughts on Him. Hence, you have to conceive of God in human form and worship Him. Shri Rama, who was the embodiment of Dharma, incarnated in human form. Because the Avathars (Divine advents) come in human form, human beings could have intimate relationships with them and adore them. The Vedas declared that the Vedaham etham Purusham Mahantham Adithyavarnam thamasah parasthath (The Supreme Divine, with the effulgence of the sun, dwells beyond darkness). God is beyond Thamas (darkness). He is not outside. He is within you. You are He. While He is himself the Divine, man seeks the Divine in a forest or through meditation. What folly is this? The Vedas deride man for failing to see God even while seeing Him. "Pashyannapi na pashyanthi muudho" (The fool fails to see even while he is seeing). When God comes in human form, moves freely amongst you, talks with you, jokes with you, eats with you and drinks with you, even then you fail to recognise God. You pursue your own types of devotion. This is not correct. You must worship the living Divinity, not the lifeless. Honour every human being who is in human form. See the Divine in every man.

The cosmos is Vishnu svaruupam (a manifestation of the Divine). God is with you, in you, and around you. He is not elsewhere. Develop this firm conviction. It is a piece of self-deception to imagine that God is somewhere away from you. At the outset, you have to develop control of your senses. This control in the form of mounam (silence) influences your speech. Jayadheva went into rapture over the power of the tongue to chant sweetly the name of the Lord. Sweetness in speech makes all the differences between one man and another. The supreme greatness of the Lord's name has been commended in the present Age of Kali (Discord). It is an abuse of the tongue to make it recite anything other than God's name.

Students should realise the supremacy of Atma-Vidhya (the culture of the Self). It is the key to all knowledge. What is the use of all the secular knowledge which is concerned with acquiring a mess of potage?

The great scientist, Einstein, regretted in his last years that his scientific findings had led to the production of the atom bomb. Sir Isac Newton ended his life in a hospital with a mental affliction. True knowledge must secure mental peace and enduring joy For this contemplation of God is essential.

Academic education has its uses. But it is not the summom-bonum of life. Adore the light of the Divine within you. Each student is like a petromax light. This light has to be kept burning by pumping kerosene from time to time. The soot has to be cleaned by a pin now and then. It needs kerosene. Only when all the three are present, the light will Butn brightly Your Shraddha (earnest devotion) is the kerosene. Your love is the pin. Your spirit of sacrifice is the pump. In addition, a wick is needed. That wick is the Lord's name. With the aid of the three accessories, when you chant the Lord's name, your devotion will shine effulgently This effulgence is the light of the Divine within you. You proceed from peacelessness to Paramjyothi (the light divine in the heart) through peace and an illumined mind. The heart of everyone is the scat of the Lord. In this way students should cultivate the discriminating faculty through education, cherish humility and foster faith in the Divine. This is the royal road to realisation of oneness with the Divine.