In plain words
Merely doing good deeds, merely singing bhajans, merely joining a satsaṅga: these are not, of themselves, the nature of good qualities. This does not belong to character. To see that bad thoughts do not enter the heart: that is the finest character. Not to let them go down into action is one kind of character. Merely doing wrong once is not a wrong. To do again and again the very wrong once done: that is the great wrong. So it is unnatural to man that we, knowingly or unknowingly, once let bad thoughts and bad qualities grow strong to some extent. But once we have learnt that this is wrong, we must never consent to put them into practice again.
Today in Bal Vikas we must take up the path that develops such sacred qualities. But before we try to teach the children, we must show this character in our own life. If we try only to teach it to the children without living that very character in our daily life, it will not fulfil our ideal at all. The teachers must be ready to practise it and then hand it on to the children. The very wrong for which we punish the children and scold them that it is not right, that same wrong we must see that we do not do. The welfare of the future rests on handing on such ideal conduct to the children.
If you ask what is most precious in this world, some may say silver, some gold, some diamonds. But silver, gold and diamonds are not what is precious. Man himself is what is precious. It is man who digs the gold out of the earth where it lies hidden from us and unregarded, brings it up, purifies it and turns it into value. Who takes a stone lying there like a lump, cuts it, turns it into a diamond and gives it value? Man. That is why man is more precious than anything. The effort to hold on to this precious human race and protect it is found in man alone.
The government makes many laws, seeking the welfare of the people. The government can arrange many comforts for man's daily life. It can also bring good comforts to those who suffer many hardships in village life. But however excellent the laws may be, they are of no use unless there are good feelings in the people who carry them out. So people who put things to good use are very much needed today. The comforts man needs are found in plenty. There are many comforts for daily life, ready to hand. As for learning and schooling, as many institutions as you could want have come up. As for ways of earning money, there are countless. But no contentment, no Śānti, comes to us at all. What is the reason? Man cannot enjoy happiness precisely because he cannot develop the sacred qualities within him. Today what is needed is to develop the humanness of man.
In the Western countries science and technology are growing in many ways. They are learning to move with ease in water, like fish. They are learning, too, to travel with ease in the sky, like birds. But they make no effort at all to live on the earth like men. We must make the effort fit for living on the earth; our life will not be called right because we moved about in the sky. Above all, we must recognise what humanness is. Only then will we have a certain courage to teach the Bal Vikas students. Humanness is not living by food and sleep alone, enjoying a few pleasures of the senses besides, and wasting our time.
Many will have read this in the Bible. Once Jesus was walking along a bazaar. In a corner a man had drunk and fallen down senseless. Jesus went up to him: ‘My son! Why are you in this state? Even if you drink, to drink until you lose yourself like this is dangerous. It is not good’: so He taught him. Then the man: ‘Lord! Before, I had no eyes. Then I had no idea what life was. In that state it was You who granted me these eyes. Because these eyes have come, I am passing my life in this way, drinking and dancing, meaning to enjoy all the pleasures there are in the world.’ Then Jesus grieved greatly within Himself: ‘Fie! Fie! With power beyond the human I have done this!’ When He had gone a little further, another man, blind with lust, was roaming the bazaar as he pleased. Jesus saw him: ‘My son! What is humanness? Is humanness living like the dogs of the bazaar? What is this perversion?’, He asked. Then the man said, ‘Lord! Before, I had leprosy.