In plain words
To have character and nothing else is good enough, but to lose character and have everything brings no result. If you want to follow the right paths, you must follow your own Buddhi, your own nature and your own strength, and you must not follow others.
Today everyone is out only for a seat of power; you do not find anyone who recognises his responsibilities and acts by them. Only those who know the weight of responsibility should come into power. Otherwise all is darkness; it is a blind man's kingdom.
Who are the people seeking leadership in the colleges today? Only those who know the responsibilities of this leadership and have the mind to act accordingly are fit for it; the rest, we have to say, are good for nothing. Before you compete for this leadership, you must learn the aims of education and the state of the country; only after that should you take on this responsibility.
In the field of education today, many incidents are taking place that cause unrest. Who are the ones responsible for all of these? The teachers and the students themselves. The reason for this state is precisely that they do not know what the sacred aim of education is. This sorry fate has come upon the educational institutions precisely because some such people keep wanting to become leaders.
But we cannot say that all the failings are the students'. We have to say it is, above all, the irresponsible conduct of the teachers, educated as they are, and of the elders. If all of them truly wanted the students' progress for the good of the country, they would not do such things. Some are doing their jobs somehow or other. How many of them watch whether their students are walking the right path because of their teaching? All they do is teach lifelessly, by the hour; but those who speak out of a wish for the students' good are very few. It is because of such teachers that the students lose so much. What is there in teaching a class by reading from the book? Teachers who read beforehand and think out what they must say and how they must say it are very few today. How many teachers are there who enquire whether the students are listening to what they say and writing it down with care, or not?
Some students wander about outside while classes are going on. If you ask them, “What is the reason for this?”, their answer is, “Can we not read for ourselves what is in the book?” If teachers who give lessons this way are there, it is all the same. If they are not, it is all the same; they are nothing but a waste for the government.
In this college a teacher, whoever he is, is held to be fit for that post only when he regards the children's progress as the chief thing. Only students who have an interest in the learning of the Ātma, as well as in worldly learning, should study here. There is no place here for those who think worldly learning alone is enough. Where there are students without discipline and teachers without dedication to their work, we will close the college itself.