The Inner Light

“One may win over a congregation with his 
scholastic abilities! 
One may fight a war valiantly! 
One may be born in royal clan and rule the nation! 
One may have given gold and cows in charities! 
One may be capable of counting stars in sky! 
One may be able to enumerate living species! 
But he is unable to control body and senses and to 
direct the 
mind steadily inwards with equanimity! 
Mental poise is the right path! 
It is a great power on earth! 
This poise must be cultivated like a pearl from a 
sea! 
Do not forget this good dictum!”

Embodiments of Divine Atma, Girl Students and Teachers!

Life is very valuable and sacred. Man struggles in several ways in order to achieve his aspirations. There is no element of satisfaction in man’s nature. The more he gets, the more he wants. Ideal and ritualistic aspirations are also a part of his life. In India, it is customary to light a lamp before any sacred ritual is started. Light dispels darkness. Lamp is revered in India since ancient times. It must be noted that this ritual is not an ignorant act; nor is it any superstition. This practice has deeper connotations.

You must have noticed that flame always moves upwards. This may be equated to a thirst for knowledge or a quest for divinity. Upward movement symbolises higher aspirations and higher worlds. Downward movements are normally construed as lower thoughts and lower worlds. Lighting of lamp has another symbolism. In order to light a lamp, you must have a container or dish like receptacle, some oil, a wick and also a device to light it. This kind of lamp can only dispel external darkness. It is not capable of removing inner darkness. In order to dispel ignorance it is necessary to light up the inner effulgence. For this purpose detachment is necessary like the receptacle; devotion (bhakti) is like oil in the lamp; sense control is like the wick and the spiritual reasoning is the lighter. All these four aspects are essential to have inner effulgence. If one of them is missing, then all other things become useless. For the Atmic effulgence to shine brightly, all these four aspects have to be nurtured incessantly.

Rust can be buffed off easily
Husk can be blown out of a seed 
But a fool cannot be motivated

Passion And Hatred Lead To Doom

Man’s foolishness lies in his selfishness and self-centered attitude. These are the main hurdles in the path of his progress. In whatever we see, whatever we speak, or whatever we do there is an inevitable element of selfishness. Does it constitute our goal? No. Our goal lies in the path of transcendence and sacredness. This is the real stuff of life.

When Hanuman torched the entire Lanka, it burned brightly. But to Ravana’s eyes everything looked dark. This darkness in fact is related to the inner core of a being. When the heart is filled with kama (lust) and krodha (anger), there can only be darkness in the heart. Ravana was a personification of kama and krodha. Added to this he had ten heads. The kama, krodha, lobha (greed), moha (passion), mada (arrogance) and matsarya (jealousy), mind, intellect, chitta (fickle aspect) and ahamkara (selfish ego) – these are the ten heads pertaining to Ravana. In fact, every man is a Ravana, because he is basically associated with all these ten qualities. Ravana was known to have come from the clan of Lord Brahma. Kumbhakarna was his brother. Ravana had conquered Indra. He had a formidable son known as Indrajit. In spite of such great might and pomp, Ravana had succumbed to his qualities of raga (passion) and dvesha (hatred) and got totally destroyed.

In order to keep up the dignity of humanism it is necessary to foster sacred thoughts and qualities. Great ancient values and customs have to be protected carefully. Today truth and righteousness are being neglected; unrighteousness and lawlessness are on the increase with the result animal qualities are gaining upper hand over humanism. Humanism is a mixture of all aspects, namely Divinity, human qualities, animalism, and devilishness. Various combinations of these four aspects again result in complex personalities like human-divine, human-devil, animal-human, human-human, and so on. In any case, man is unable to realise the truth of his own reality due to this kind of aberrations. The same individual is undergoing different stages of life like childhood, youth, old age, etc. Although his body is constantly changing, his self has no change. Man is a regular witness to this fact of his own life.

Body is a product of five physical elements. Therefore, it is bound to meet with disease and destruction. But the Indweller (Soul) has no disease or destruction. Therefore when education is directed towards the external body, it meets with the same fate as the external body. As your Principal said now, education for life, not for making a living. Education is meant to mend the way of the mind, to tend its posture, to discipline its usage and to teach the mind on abilities of concentration. Mere collection of facts is not true education. To gather information about all that is happening in the world is like gathering trash from the roadside. Instead, it is necessary to know what is happening within ourselves. One must look forward to good news from within his own being. Today’s newspaper becomes a waste paper tomorrow. Nobody likes to read the same news everyday. The wish to be born again and again is similar to reading the same news everyday. This should not be our aim. We should have proper vision towards our future and about the goal.

Girl Students!

If you wish to lay proper foundations for your future, it is not a right path to indulge in brooding over the past. You must realise the importance of the ‘Present.’ The truth about ‘Omnipresent’ lies in the present. No one can afford to neglect the present if he aspires to have a happy life in future. You must keep two aspects in mind in regard to the ‘present.’ Whatever you do, you must do it with a sense of Duty and with a feeling of enjoyment in the work involved. Duty is God; Work is Worship. Our education and our life should be dedicated to duty and work in a sense of worship. Don’t brood over the past. Don’t dream about the future. Live in the present. Do your duty gladly and attentively.

Gratitude is a noble quality which is scarce these days. We find people returning bad for the good they receive. People are harming the very people who helped them. Divinity must be expressed by doing good to those who try to harm you. Every individual is a spark of divinity. All are sons of God. We must foster brotherhood of man and fatherhood of God.

There is only one Caste, 
the caste of humanity 
There is only one language, 
the language of the heart 
There is only one religion, 
the religion of love

When minds are good, which religion is bad? In the name of religion people are becoming mad. Narrow-minded attitude should be shunned. Narrow regional, caste or community feelings must be discarded. All are one. Be alike to everyone. What is the use of education when the honour, faith and nobility of the nation cannot be protected? Educated people should not stoop to the level of begging, using their degrees as begging bowls.

Water The Roots To Grow The Tree

A human being is endowed with great powers within him. We are wasting this power by bad look, bad hearing, bad talk, bad thought and bad deed. Lot of energy is wasted by looking at bad scenes. Blind people are better in this regard. Similarly better are the deaf and dumb. Knowledge should be coupled with equanimity. This combination takes man to very high levels of prajñana. On the other hand when knowledge is coupled with ego, it leads to disaster. It is a sort of artificial life, whereas art comes from heart. The modern student can be compared to a giraffe. It has a long neck. Its head remains far away from its heart. The present day students are behaving as though their head and heart have no coordination. Head is somewhere and the heart is somewhere else. They think of one thing and do a different thing. This type of attitude leads to disaster of humanism.

‘Manas ekam, vachas ekam, karmanye kam mahatmanam.’ When thought, word and deed are in coherence then it makes a Mahatma.’ Proper study of mankind is man. Students must study life-histories of Mahatmas and noble people and must endeavour to emulate their qualities. Man needs both worldly and transcendental knowledge. They are like two wings of a bird and like two wheels of a cart. You may question, ‘when we can’t see ‘Param’ why should we bother about transcendental aspect?’ You are aware of the fact that the roots of a tree are not visible while its branches, leaves and flowers are visible.

But the tree survives only when its roots are watered properly. It is the same thing with the tree of life. Its roots are somewhere else while the body is dancing like a puppet on this earth. One must make use of education to understand about one’s own roots. There are three kinds of powers lying within everybody. They are known as ichchhasakti, jñanasakti, and kriyasakti (will power, power of knowledge, power of action respectively). These powers have to be integrated for a successful life. A product cannot be made just by thinking of it. One has to procure the raw material, process it and it must be mended. Only then the product can be brought to a proper shape. This is kriyasakti. The will to shape and design in the manner desired is ichchhasakti. The technique involved in making pertains to jñanasakti. Only when all these types of power are integrated the requisite job or work fructifies.

In the field of heart there is the Kalpataru (wish fulfilling tree). There is a lot of wild growth of weeds around this tree. In order to access the tree, the weeds and wild bushes around have to be removed. Education must be channeled and aimed properly towards the goal. Education must clear the path, improve our conduct and must lead us towards the right goal.

Our conduct improves only when we observe certain principles and ethics. Society’s image depends on these two aspects. Purity of heart lays the basis for application of these aspects in the day to day affairs. Society without morals is like a mad monkey. Education is not necessary for leading a life of morality. We find parents encouraging their children to take up professional courses like Engineering and Medicine even without considering whether they possess requisite aptitude and maturity. People are blinded in the pursuit of money. Parents must be more concerned about the conduct of their children. Money comes and goes; but morality comes and grows. Therefore, parents must provide proper atmosphere at home for development of principled life. Once this is achieved, it does not matter which type of profession the student takes up. Along with professional knowledge, general knowledge and social knowledge must be developed. Student is basically a product of society. Therefore, it is the duty of every student to show gratitude to the society in kind and deed. When students remain in ivory towers, remaining themselves with their own interests, then how is it possible to serve the society.

You should not develop an attitude of evading service activity fearing your neat dress getting soiled or for fear of indignity. You should know that real happiness and dignity are obtained through selfless service. Our students must stand out as ideal examples for others to follow in doing humble and selfless service.

People give endless lectures on service 
but in practice they turn their backs at the needy. 
Life is a challenge, meet it. 
Life is a game, play it. 
Life is a dream, realise it. 
Life is love, enjoy it.

We must develop and broaden our thinking. Shed ego and pride and mingle well with everybody with a feeling of brotherhood. Do not become a slave to the senses and the mind. Instead you should become their master. You must develop a strong intellect and willpower to be able to command your senses and mind.

Our Culture had bestowed a high position to women. You will notice that while referring to couples we always say Lakshmi Narayana, Parvati Parameswara, Sita Rama, Rukmini Krishna, etc. Woman’s name comes first. The reason is that woman represents ‘nature.’ Nature and Supreme Soul – these are the two forms of inertness and consciousness respectively. When we say Lakshmi Narayana, it is normally construed that Lakshmi is the wife of Narayana. In fact Lakshmi is Nature and Narayana is the Power. First of all we take refuge in nature. Then, we reach the Supreme Being (Paramatma). The world is an integrated form of Nature and Paramatma. Jagat (world) is matter, and ‘Being’ is truth and eternal. Matter along with Being is God. Therefore, there is energy in matter, we say. There is no matter without the association of divine power. Divine power cannot be perceived without matter. Woman represents Nature. The five basic elements (Pancha-bhutas), the five vital airs (Pancha-pranas), the five sheaths (Pancha-kosas) are all in ‘nature.’ Therefore, there is no wisdom in remembering God while forgetting ‘nature’; and there is no wisdom in taking refuge in nature while forgetting Divine power (God). We have to reach God through nature, in other words through body. Akshara (alphabetical letter) is not a mere letter. Akshara is a combination of kshara and akshara. Akshara represents permanence; kshara represents temporal or impermanence. But, within akshara, both permanence and transient are present. Akshara is known as Atma (Soul). Kshara is body which is perishable. The perishable body (kshara), when joins with imperishable Atma akshara is formed. Therefore, man is the form of akshara. In fact we have all types of knowledge within us – Akshara jñanam, Para jñanam and other jñanams. Humanism is understood in the right perspective through these types of knowledge. Therefore, humanism is a unique system.

Man Is Not New

For a human being, humility is the basis of all the achievements or attainments and humility is learnt through education. An arrogant person is dragged to a life of laziness; and it makes him irrelevant to the society. One must work hard and earn his own livelihood. It does not matter if you do not acquire good marks in the examinations. But, the most important thing is that you should not get remarks from others in life. Consider faith as your very life breath. Faith is needed in any endeavour. Faith does not mean blind faith or dogmatism. Instead of reposing faith in God, people repose faith in rituals and on the almanac prepared by scholar. People offer oblations on the day of New moon, ekadashi and other occasions. The Veda had categorically declared, “Tat-Tvam-Asi; prajñanam brahma; Ayam Atma brahma; Aham brahmasmi.”

Leaving these cardinal dictums, man believes in temporal aspects. He is neglecting permanent truth. We must recognise our own debilities like attachment, passion and hatred; and must make proper attempts to weed them out. Without strengthening our Atmic power, there is no use of developing any other powers. Self-confidence leads to self-satisfaction and the capacity for self-sacrifice. Our body is meant for doing karma (duty). Our duty is to serve the society. Making use of our body dharma has to be sustained. You must be like a real ‘manava’, ‘ma’ means ‘not.’ ‘nava’ means ‘new.’ So manava (man) means ‘I am not new.’ The soul has been taking up various bodies down the stream of cycles of births and deaths. This episode of wearing bodies is not new. Even then man is clinging to this decomposable body, out of passion and ignorance.

Girl Students!

Having joined this college, your first and foremost duty is to develop humility. You must know that, in our college, education is only a ruse. Your real mission is to develop an impeccable character and integrity whereby your parents and the society become proud. Our college is not run on business or commercial principles. In order to stand as ideal precursors to orderly society and as epitome of virtues, you must cultivate the art of life. This art is the crown of all arts. What is this art of ideal life? It means a life replete with cardinal virtues, namely Truth, Righteousness, Peace, Love and Non-Violence. These are our very life-breathe. Art of life also involves the knack of keeping away from violent trends and agitational methods.

As students you must know how to utilise the resources available and how to avoid negative sources of information or advice from evil company. You must learn to live a life of peace, with love as its anchor. Today we had inaugurated the B.Ed College with a view to develop women into capable teachers of values.

You should always keep in mind that society is focusing its attention on you, and people are critically apprising your conduct, as this college is in limelight on a global level. You should not go after pomp. You must follow your pure conscience at all times; and you need not be afraid of anything or anybody in doing good deeds. You will have fear only when you are on the wrong path.

I conclude My discourse with the blessing that all of you complete the training successfully and embark on the mission of training girls in right path.