Sri Sathya Sai On: How to Become Best Sai Students?

In the following discourse to the students in the hostel, Bhagavan said that as Sai students they should not only be serious about their studies but also inculcate discipline and purity in letter and spirit and set an example to others.

Today, without understanding what the class is, what the subject is, what you are going to study, the discipline you are specializing in, the manners that students should possess, students crave to endlessly study, get the degree anyway and secure ‘O’ grade (75% – 100%).

Today, not even one out of 100 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 memorizing 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 textbooks. To teach you the path of truth required in the daily life you should listen to all that I am saying. Study all your textbooks 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 memorize 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 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 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 behavior should not have any lapses. The life that is very enjoyable has to be experienced in the right way and at the right time.

Discipline is the Hallmark of Life

Consider a small example. You are about to have your food. You mixed dal [lentils] with rice. Dal is a little saltier. Just because the dal is salty you waste it even though it takes only two hours for digestion. You express dissatisfaction over the dal being salty. If you develop dissatisfaction over dal that gets digested in just two 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 criticize you? You must 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, and 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 that 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 you should pass the test of discipline. You must adhere to the disciplinary standards at the hostel and the college. At 5:30 a.m. you should attend the Suprabhatam and Omkaram [morning prayers]. 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. Just as a machine gets rusted when it’s not being used, so will the 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 test. 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 that 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 the best student. Else you will become the worst student. You must decide if you want to be the best or the 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 (place to gain knowledge). These Rishikula-Ashramas existed in the erstwhile society also. But with the advent of modernization the ‘r’ syllable was left and ‘Ishikula Ashramas’ came into picture. Those Ishikulas have now become ‘schools’. We must 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. Today we have lost the truth at the mental level. We must restore it. That is what we have to do. Students! I don’t tell you to completely neglect your subjects. You must pass in your courses at the college also. You must get good grades in those exams. But along with that, you must 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 must 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 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 [waving the flame] 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 unable 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 organizations 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 discipline, devotion, duty, and behavior.

Suppose a student comes late to class by 10 minutes, teachers allow him to sit in the class. They don’t ask him 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 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’, My Dear Students Volume 3