In plain words
Though there are 5000 Bal Vikas teachers, we must once take a lion's look back at the result we have achieved in these four years. We must keep examining every task we do, moment by moment. Where a guru has sāttvic feelings, such sāttvic feelings grow in the students who study at that guru's side. So, for holy feelings to take root in students, teachers must first of all develop holy qualities. First of all, teachers must see to it that hatred and envy and narrow feelings do not enter them in the least. Above all, teachers must see that this pest called the political spirit does not enter their lives at all.
No parties must spring up among these teachers. While some teachers go on building up their name and fame, other teachers go on swelling their envy of them. Teacher brothers and sisters must believe themselves children of the divine Ātma-principle and develop the feeling of oneness in the Ātma. That a few contrary feelings flare up in a man, a little or a lot, now and then, is a mark of humanness. But you have entered as Sathya Sai Bal Vikas gurus. Whatever faults enter other gurus, not much danger follows. But if vices of a few kinds enter Sathya Sai Bal Vikas gurus, obstacles of every kind stand in the way. So Bal Vikas gurus must try to recognise the inner meaning of the word ‘guru’. The syllable ‘gu’ means darkness. The syllable ‘ru’ means its removal. That is, to root out the darkness of Ajñāna and give a radiant heart: that is the derivation of this word guru. Going deeper and examining it: “gukāro guṇātītaḥ rukāro rūpavarjitaḥ”; one must oneself experience this principle beyond the guṇas, this principle without form, and give it to the students. That is, we must give up our attachments and our sense of ‘mine’, grow the Prema that says ‘the students are our children’, place all our attachment in the students, and so try to teach.
When we come into “Sathya Sai Bal Vikas” with such feelings, it gains its true meaning. Yet the Satya, that Bal Vikas gurus are giving a very fine growth and purity, is not unknown to “Sai”. As one ‘charges’ a ‘battery’ from time to time, it is most necessary that, by pointing out to you a few faults of this kind, we seek a few ways to grow. You may have had some experiences in daily life. Even when you pump a petromax light, you must turn its pin now and then. Yet however much you pump it, however much you work the pin, some ‘oil’ called ‘kerosene’ must also be in it. ‘Kerosene’ is our śraddhā. Our Prema is the pin. Our faith is the pump. Only when the three are brought together in this way does it become possible to give the divine light to others. The base of all these, and the chief thing for the light, is the wick called the divine Name.