 |
| Sri Sathya Sai with Students in the Prasanthi Nilayam Campus Hostel |
Today, not even one out of hundred students reads the text books
But yearns to pass the examinations
The modern system of education has verily become a sham!
Do we become students if we write the examination memorising a few things? Do we become learned then? What sort of help does the society beget with this education? There is no use of it to you. There is no use of it to the society. You forget all that you have studied in just one year’s time. There is no relation between what you study and your job. General knowledge and common sense are very important as far as life is concerned. All these are not present in the text books. To teach you the path of truth required in the daily life you should listen to all that I am saying. Study all your text books for the sake of employment and jobs.
Students! You can enquire for yourself. You go to the laboratories and perform various experiments. According to the subjects like Physics, Chemistry or Biology and depending on the experiment, you memorise the quantity of chemicals, the sequence in which you have to mix them and how to arrive at the answer. You test whether this is right or wrong only in the laboratory. But in the day to day life how do you check if the way in which you are going is right or wrong? You are not trying to find this out. You believe that the worldly aspects are eternal. There is a lot of gap between the time when you are pursuing your education and the time when you will gain employment.
Knowledge is of five types. Bookish knowledge is relevant only for today and tomorrow. Day after tomorrow it turns into ‘allergy’. You rely on this bookish knowledge and enter your professions with only superficial knowledge. Because of this superficial knowledge, general knowledge is becoming zero. When general knowledge is zero there is no discrimination knowledge. How can you attain practical knowledge if you have not got the discrimination knowledge? The world today needs practical knowledge. Water is formed from two parts of hydrogen and one part of oxygen. This is found only in the laboratory. But when you sit for lunch will you mix two parts of hydrogen and one part of oxygen? This is practical science. In your day-to-day life, you see if the water is pure or not, if its taste is good or not, and whether it has some impurities. Hence in the daily life our behaviour should not have any lapses. The life which is very enjoyable has to be experienced in the right way at the right time.
Discipline is the Hallmark of Life
Consider a small example. You are about to have your food. You mixed Dal with rice. Dal is a little more salty. Just because the Dal is salty you waste it even though it takes only 2 hours for digestion. You express dissatisfaction over the Dal being salty. If you develop dissatisfaction over Dal that gets digested in just 2 hours, shouldn’t there be a little taste in life that spans over 80 or 90 or 100 years? Shouldn’t there be some value attached to it? Should you not give a serious thought to the fact that if you do not adhere to the discipline, the world is going to criticise you? You have to think of all this in the daily life.
You think that the bus will arrive at 5 o’clock. It becomes six, seven, eight, nine and the bus does not arrive. What do you feel then? You start abusing the driver, the department, the government. You start to abuse that the schedules of buses are without discipline; buses, trains and planes do not turn up on time. If you abuse to such an extent a bus or a train which has no life in it when it does not turn up at the right time, will not this world abuse you as a conscious individual, when you do not adhere to your discipline, code of conduct and duty? If you do not follow the discipline, how do you have the right to abuse the buses and trains? Hence, first of all you should pass the test of discipline. You have to adhere to the disciplinary standards at the hostel and the college. At 5:30 am you should attend the Suprabhatam and Omkaram. If you don’t adhere to the discipline, yours will become a life without the life sustaining force (Prana).
Become Best Students!
Students! Understand clearly. A machine when not working properly and left unused gets rusted. When a machine gets rusted when not being put to use, so will a body get rusted if not used properly. Where has the rust come from? All the dust has accumulated on the machine as it is not being used. This dust gets converted into rust. Because of this rust, the machine loses all its efficiency. Then it will have to be taken to the workshop for rest. In the workshop, during rest when it is overhauled, it turns out to be the best! When does it become the best? It becomes the best only when the dust and the rust on it are removed. Hence what should you do if you all want to become best students? The rust and dust in you which is the evil intentions and the wavering mind should be submitted to the Lord. That is the workshop. There is the real rest. If you take proper rest there, you will turn out to be a best student. Else you will become a worst student. You have to decide if you want to be best or worst.
Students! We started this Sathya Sai Institute with the intention that the students passing out of this college should set examples in all walks of life. This is a Rishikula-Ashrama. These Rishikula-Ashramas existed in the erstwhile society also. But with the advent of modernisation the ‘r’ syllable was left and ‘Ishikula Ashramas’ came into picture. That Ishikulas have now become ‘schools’. We have to develop the legacy of the Rishis’ system of education.
Knowledge + Action = True Education
Rutam means the truth at mental level. Nijam (fact) means the worldly truth, truth related to the body. Rutam is truth at the mental level. Today we have lost the truth at the mental level. We have to restore it. That is what we have to do. Students! I don’t tell you to completely neglect your subjects. You have to pass in your courses at the college also. You have to get good grades in those exams. But along with that, you have to essentially develop spiritual knowledge also. What is the use of all these fans and bulbs if there is no electricity? All your subjects are like fans and bulbs. Only when there is the electricity of spirituality, can these subjects find true use and application. Knowledge without action is foolish. Action without knowledge is useless. Hence you have to develop the relation between these two also. Only when you develop the spiritual feelings, you find application of the knowledge in the worldly pursuits. If you see the world outside, you can really think how unrespectable the life has become. There is no humanness anywhere. Students! You should develop as human beings. You should enter the world outside and purify the impurity. You should jump into action with courage and bravery. You are admitted and trained here for this very purpose. Only when you are trained here today for that purpose can you go and work outside. Without this training what can you do outside?
“Shreyohi Jnaanamabhyasaat, Jnanaat Dhyanam Vishishyate
Dhyanaat Karma Phala Tyagaha, Tyagaat Shantiranantaram”
(Better indeed is the knowledge than imperfect practice.
Better than knowledge is meditation on God.
But better than meditation is renunciation of the desire for the fruits of the actions; for, there follows peace immediately.)
The Importance of Practice and Discipline
There should be practice for everything. A person used to offer prayers to God in a temple. He used to offer Arati at the end of the prayer. He used to give Arati and simultaneously ring the bell. He got used to it. One day he passed away. The villagers appointed a new person to offer prayers. He was not used to the practice of giving Arati and ringing the bell simultaneously. When he was ringing the bell, he was not able to give Arati and when he was giving Arati, he was not able to ring the bell. A small thing like this requires so much practice. Imagine what amount of practice is required for illuminating a life full of Divinity. This training is available in our organisations and our University. Not anywhere else. You have to earn the value and deservedness. It is enough if you can maintain that fame. Nothing else is necessary.
Today, there is no one to tell students what is right and what is not. At home, parents are diverting their children more into worldly education. In the classes the teachers themselves don’t know much. What can they tell the students? They are teaching them the respective subjects, but they are not teaching them the discipline, devotion, duty and behaviour.
Suppose a student comes late to the class by 10 minutes, teachers allow him to sit in the class. They don’t ask him as to why he was late by 10 minutes. You are not day scholars. You are all coming from the hostel itself. All of you should come at the same time. Why should one student alone be late? You cannot have petty reasons for coming late like you missed the bus or the train. Teachers have to take this discipline as a part of the curriculum. This Institution has been established to impart spiritual education as a main component and the worldly education as a secondary one. Students! I expect you to think of this, practice this purity in letter and spirit and set an example to others. I bless you thus.
Source: ‘Seek The Treasure Within’, Discourse 4, My Dear Students Volume 3, Discourse given on June 21, 1989 at Sri Sathya Sai Hostel for Senior Students, Prashanti Nilayam
No comments:
Post a Comment