In plain words
Through talking too much we forget even what we have studied. Those who keep from talking much are the very ones who pass with good marks. All of you must live together like brothers. But you must not get too closely tied to anyone. Going to college in gangs and groups does not suit our college. The reason is this: we have come here leaving our parents and our brothers. Why tie ourselves with ties all over again here? If you do want to talk, you may talk about your subject. Even then you must not trouble those beside you. Besides that, out in the world things go on with vice and with pride, in the name of ‘we are students’. More than this, you must sit straight, not moving the body this way and that, not letting it bend. If you do so, there is a change in the Manas. You may know the science of Yoga. If we sit bent, the 33 rings in the spine bend, and the man bends too. Besides, if you sit bent, your concentration is broken. Suppose there is a vessel. If you pour water into it and move the vessel, the water moves too. The body is like the vessel. The Manas is like the water. If the body moves, the Manas moves too. So in dhyāna you must sit upright. You must keep the body and the Manas in their right place.
Students! You are of tender age. Knowingly or unknowingly, you keep making many mistakes. You will reap their fruits in the future. The mark of learning is humility. When you see elders, and when you talk with them, you must behave with respect. Without such conduct, learning has no worth. There is a little story about this. All of you may well know it already. In Allahabad there lived a Hindi teacher called Premchand. He had two sons. The elder son was humble. He had boundless respect for his parents. The younger one was well versed in the ways of these times. Both were studying in Allahabad. One day the parents, travelling towards a station beyond Allahabad, wrote a letter to the boys. The letter said: ‘We are going by such-and-such a train; come to the station to meet us.’ On that date they came to the train. The moment he saw them, the elder one bowed. The younger one, his hands fashionably in his pockets, asked, ‘Are you well?’ The moment he heard those words, the father felt uneasy. Then he asked after their welfare: how he was studying, how the college was, whether the hostel was good. The bell rang, and the train moved off. From the doorway the father blessed them both: ‘Study well, be good.’ The train went. As long as his parents could be seen, the elder one stayed with his palms joined in namaskāram. The second one was saying ‘ta-ta’. Well! The boys passed out of sight. The father was deeply pained. He sat there very sad. His wife asked, ‘What is it? Why are you like this?’ ‘The younger one did not bow to me,’ he said. ‘Oh well! Never mind, he did not bow because he did not know better. Forgive him,’ she said. Sitting in his seat and turning on the fan, he said to his wife, ‘Did you see? The younger one did not bow to me.’ In her mind: ‘For some reason his mind is churned up, and he stays very sad. This is a sickness these poets have,’ she thought. At once she went to her husband and asked, ‘My lord! What is lost if he does not bow?’ His answer to that: ‘If he does not bow, I lose nothing at all. But his future is being ruined. That is just what pains me. And his life is going to waste. His life will sink to ruin,’ he said. What he felt came true for all to see. The elder one studied to be a barrister and became a High Court judge. The second became a peon in that very court. And there was one thing more: he who had bowed to his elders was bowed to by everyone who came. This peon had to bow to everyone who came. So we must think about the future and conduct ourselves in the present in keeping with it. For a human being, Ahaṅkāra and envy are worse still. Anger, too, is not good. We must take care not to let them into our citta. Truly, we stay pure and selfless of heart.
Students! This is a fine, golden age. It is sacred. You must not waste this age. What matters most at this age is conduct. Truly, without rules and restraint we are nothing but beasts. When we break our rules and restraints, we must turn our minds around at once and lead a good life. Otherwise it becomes like a train that has jumped the rails. It becomes like a boat without a rudder. So we must be disciplined in the college and in the hostel. Discipline is what life rests on. That is the very thing that makes a person respected. Without it we behave worse than beasts. The children of our hostel must cultivate discipline.