In plain words
Money itself is the cause of this. If children need ten rupees, they should be given nine. But when ten are needed, they give twenty. This love kills. The ten rupees left over lead them into bad habits. We must keep our love as love and see that no harm comes to them. In this way we must shape them to be ideal. Our Bal Vikas gurus must take note of one more thing. While the classes go on, they can be run in good order, with humility and obedience. You must notice how they behave outside and teach them accordingly. From time to time you must gather the parents, hold what is called ‘Parents' Day’, and find out how the children behave. Life does not shine through education alone. It shines through the conduct of a life of Satya. So, along with science, arithmetic and general knowledge, you must bring in the spiritual, the moral and Dharma. Progress does not come merely from taking up measures like these. We must not set about sending them to indecent plays and film shows either. Those scenes press deep into tender hearts. Films themselves are no good. All of it is untrue. Stop sending them to such shows. You must explain well why they should not go to the cinema. That scene is not Satya; the sound is not Satya. You must make them understand that it is a gramophone speaking. There, you must tell them the truth. We look at an illusion, forget ourselves, delight in it, and lose ourselves entirely. If someone dies there, it seems as though they weep beyond measure. In truth they are not weeping. Nor has anyone died. The children who watch it weep. So this is a mark of Ajñāna.
Today we imitate everything: our clothes, the way we wear them, the mark on the brow, the hair. Are all of those Satya in the cinema? No. Because we live among artificial things and take our joy in them, our life too is becoming artificial. Dress, speech, conduct: all of them are turning into the language of the cinema. We must live the cinema that is right before us (life). How long will our youthfulness, our youth, last?
Beauty, youth, the strength of the senses: do not strut because you have them, brother! There lies ahead of you, and soon, the crocodiles' feast called old age. When with a whirr the bird called the jīva flies off from the wicker doll, this wooden doll, stretched out stiff, they seize it and drag it out at a stroke:
this body.
To think such a life to be Satya and lasting is not fit for human beings. We must dedicate it to an eternal life of Satya, spotless and holy. The studies of today are trash. For studies like these, it is as though we sold the gem called divinity within our humanity and bought the coals called the vāsanās of the senses. We must try to know the worth of our humanity. The supreme goal of life is one thing; the effort of our life is another. Is this our humanity? We must know why we were born. Today's students are not learning this. They think life means being born, wandering about, sleeping and dying. This, they call ‘enjoy’ in life. This is a feeble life. Every reaction, resound and reflection of it you will go through in the time to come. What stays at peace at the end is end-joy; that is enjoy. Today, if you indulge in the pleasures of the senses, at the end there is only hardship for you. So you must try to know the principle that is the supreme goal of life. To understand the divinity within us: that itself is the supreme goal. Life is a seed. As it becomes a plant, a tree and then a great tree, so it must be born, grow and come to fullness. So the gurus are the very ones who shape such young plants into great trees. They must keep showing learning in practice and in conduct. So the gurus must not fall prey to bad habits and bad thoughts, and must be an example to the children. If gurus go about on the wrong road and then speak to their pupils, will the pupils listen? The heart shrinks even from speaking. One must not be a guru for the sake of a salary. One must be one for the sake of life. So, hoping that, after consulting together on the problems the gurus have, you will take up those ideal ways, live by them and become guides to the children, and blessing you, I bring My talk to a close.