In plain words
The moment he joined, they gave him a great deal of work from morning till evening. Because he was given this full work, he lived with work, saying work, work, work. But two months had hardly passed when the war stopped. Because the war stopped, they all had rest. As soon as he got rest, this boy went and sat down in one place. ‘What are my parents doing, how much are my parents grieving since I came away, how much are my sister and brother suffering?’: so his mind went to his home. In this way he sat weeping, thinking of his parents, his brothers, his kin and friends. Their officer saw him. At once he called the boy and said, ‘Boy! Go over there and dig a pit four feet long, four feet wide and four feet deep.’ He took a spade and dug. It came to five in the evening. At once he came back. ‘Sir! The work is done’, he said. ‘Then take all that earth and put it back in the pit’, said the officer. It came to six. He called the boy, gave him two biscuits and told him to go. Being very tired, he went, lay down and fell asleep. The second day, seeing the boy: ‘How many times did you think of home yesterday?’ So the officer asked. ‘There was no time at all; how would I think of people?’, he said. So it is because we have no work that we keep growing all these delusions. If we do full work, there is no room for other thoughts. That is why work is worship.
Teachers are people who stand at a very high level. It is because the teachers of today think they took up this calling only to earn a living that today learning and discrimination alike are wasting away day by day. It is something all of you know. How wretched today's system of education is! Wherever you look they say education, but education is nowhere to be seen. Wherever you look there are riots, wherever you look there are revolts, wherever you look there are quarrels. The parents are not satisfied at all. He is not satisfied with himself either. More than that, not only the Westerners of today but the people of Bhārata too are taking more and more to imitation. Imitation is very low. People do not learn good from watching one another; they learn bad. So today we must learn what is good, follow the good path and try to teach what is good. More than that, our teachers must recognise one more thing. In our dress and speech, too, we must show the children an ideal. What dress we wear, how we are: in that way we must teach the children. If the teachers themselves wear indecent dress, if the teachers themselves behave disgustingly, how can we set the children right? Today many teachers wear indecent dress and turn out like beggars, in grotesque get-ups. To see all this is very disgusting. Are these the marks of our manliness? We must show it in action. Not with these grotesque get-ups. We must show it in relieving the pains of others and the troubles of others. We must show our humanness. In our Sathya Sai Organisations everyone must be in uniform dress. simple dress, high thinking. And not: he has grown a beard, so I must grow one; he has grown a moustache, I must grow one; he has grown sideburns, so I must grow them: if you go on this way your life is a waste. We have a heart of our own. Why should we follow others? These are grotesque get-ups for a man. So we must show humanness in good qualities. Today in the world children watch their elders and follow them. So if the elders are good, the children too will follow the good path. It is something all of you know. The mathematics teacher comes. He writes on the board. The English teacher comes. He holds the book and reads it out. In this way each teacher comes and teaches in his own way. But the drill teacher does it himself, 1, 2, 3, 4, and shows the children. So all the Bal Vikas teachers must be like the drill teacher: they must do it and show it. It does not matter if we get low marks in some subjects. Our Bal Vikas children must get good marks in the subject called discipline. There is no use in getting heaps of marks in the other subjects and a remark in discipline.
That is why we must look on these three, devotion, duty and discipline, as our subjects. The reason the whole world today has sunk into so many kinds of cruelty and hardness is the absence of spiritual growth. If we are losing this moral dignity, it is only because this spiritual sense is absent. So today we must look on the moral and the spiritual as the two wings of our life. And not only that: we must make these two our support, like a chariot on two wheels. The moral and the spiritual must be our eyes. How long does this worldly life last? It changes every moment. All these are passing clouds. Even after we leave the body, our good name stays in the world for ever. We must not live for desires. We must live for ideals. We must live for an ideal. Otherwise we will fall into despair. Desires do not last. First of all we must keep our principles and our ideals in view.