What should be the Two Goals for all our efforts?

Birds, beasts and trees do service to man, without anticipating any recompense, but man seeks help from his kind, from his parents, preceptors and even God, offering in return only insult and injury. He parades his loyalty to Truth, Right Conduct, Peace and Non-violence - virtues arising from self-less loved - but it is only for exhibition and not for experience. He longs to recede respect and affection from others but is reluctant to treat others in the same manner. His concern is centered on the body-mind complex. He ignores the fact even a hundred-year long life has to end in the cemetery. The Reality that is latent, that he has heard about, that he gets glimpses he ignores, for he is immersed in egoism and selfishness. In order to free himself from the ego, man has to recognize the One Dignity that temporally wears different forms and names to distract him by apparent multiplicity. The basic ignorance of man lies in his identifying himself with what is not genuinely he. Removal of this mistaken view and attainment of the awareness of the Unity in Divinity - this is the true purpose of education.

As you sow, so shall you reap

Education is a process of culture. One has to plant healthy and potent seeds in the inner field, so that a plentiful harvest of valuable fruits can be gained. A great deal of discrimination and preparation have to precede the sowing. What is happening today is indiscriminate choice of seeds leading to a harvest of disturbance - contingency that can be avoided only by rigorous inquiry into values and their promotion.

Another point. When some friends, well-wishers or relatives place a gift-article in our hands, we accept it gladly, though it does not please us, because our acceptance pleases them. When the gift pleases us, our reaction is hearty. We treasure it and are filled with it. Know that God too reacts  in the same way to what man offers Him. When the offering is tainted, He may accept it in order to satisfy the longing of the devotee or Sadhak. But when the offering pleases Him by its purity and sincerity, He welcomes it and His joy translates itself as abundant Grace. So, one has to discover and decide on the offering that gives Him delight and one is blessed thereby with Grace.

Offer the Flower of Prema to God

Let me tell you - the offering must be the Flower of Prema, the Flower of Satyam. Satyam has two facets: 

(1) Untouched by the flux of Time, Eternal, Unblemished, as Stable and Pure as Brahman Itself (vide the Upanishad Declaration: 'Satyam Jnanam Anantam Brahma') 

(2) Satyam in practice, as elaborated in the Upanishads - Satyam Vada, (Speak Truth), that is to say, voicing the seen exactly as seen, the thought exactly as it formed, the deed exactly as done. 

Who was it that laid down the guidelines for this practice of Truth? They were prescribed by the great grandfather of a long series of grand-fathers, the Sage Manu, the ancestral lawgiver after whom 'man' is referred to as Manuja (the child of Manu). Truth is man's long-treasured heritage. Truth sustains the world and protects mankind. It is at the basis of justice and morality, peace and purity, faith and freedom. It has to be revered and activated by man at all times, under all conditions.

The Gita advises us to adopt "inoffensive speech, which is truthful, pleasant and beneficial". In order to solve many problems that arise when one practises the Sadhana of Truth, Manu directed man not to speak out unpleasant truth or pleasant falsehood. When it becomes necessary to reveal an unpleasant truth, one has to soften and sweeten its impact by consciously charging it with Love, sympathy, and understanding. "Help ever; hurt never" - that is the maxim. Philosophy means the love for Truth which leads to the understanding and awareness of Truth. Today, it has become a superficial acquaintance, not a constant Vision of Truth, not a discipline to which one is devoted, nor a path along which progress is achieved. The various faculties of Science have also to be collated and co-ordinated, so that the scientific discipline might reveal the Truth. The Truth when known, has also to be used beneficially. Newton lamented that his famous Laws were liable to be used for disastrous ends.

Vow of Truth should never be broken

Raja Harishchandra and his family

Instances abound in the history of Bharat of sages and rulers who sacrificed their lives in order to fulfill their plighted word. Emperor Harischandra stuck to Truth in spite of travail and temptation. He refused to deny the word he had spoken, though he had to sell himself and his queen and son as bond slaves and reduce himself to the position of a watchman in a burial ground. Lakshmana too stuck to his promise to accompany Rama during the years of his exile though he had to leave his mother and wife and palace behind. Emperor Bali carried out his promise to Vamana though the Guru whom he revered predicted that he would be destroyed, if he stuck to Truth and gifted three foot-lengths of land to Vamana. So he won God's Grace, as Harischandra won it and both gathered immoral renown.

Attention to selfish interests will obstruct the path of Truth. Note how those great persons honoured their promises and compare it with the fate of promises today. Now, they appear as if they are inscribed on water. Students! You must free yourselves from this hypocrisy. Your promises are sacred bonds. The Vow of Truth should never be broken. This and the adherence to selfless love have to be your ideals. 

See how Nature adheres to Truth by God's command - the regularity of the seasons, the rule of law, the orderly orbital gyration. Man too has to learn this Truth and live accordingly, with the heart attuned to Truth and the Mind saturated with love. Speech must be the flow of Truth. Truth must be revered as one's very breath. The Triple purity - speech free from the pollution of falsehood, mind free from the taint of passionate desire or hatred, the body free from the poison of violence - has to be attained by all.

Conflicts and factions, violence and upheavals are caused by the neglect of human values in daily life. Man becomes fit and functionally valid only when, along with scholarship and expert skills, he has imbibed these values. The person who is wedded to Truth and Love would need nothing more for peace and happiness. When Creation is witnessed through these values, it becomes a holy scripture, an inspiring lesson and guide. There,re I exhort you: "Let Truth and Love be the goals for all your efforts and studies."

Source: Divine Discourse to Students of the Prasanthi Nilayam Campus at the Institute Auditorium, on December 5, 1985.