In plain words
The Bal Vikas gurus must first learn how to teach the children. Some children who study well fail in their examinations. Children who study nothing pass in their examinations. Some study without interest. They keep forgetting all they have read. But there are certain steps to this. If these steps are taught to the children in the right order, it stays in their hearts for ever. Teachers who recognise such methods and teach by them are not to be seen. They look at books and tell something, they write notes, and that is the end of it. No, no. There are certain special ways for this. If we teach our children by those ways, our system of education will become an ideal one. In these Western countries above all, we must adopt these methods. Tomorrow and the day after I will set about telling you a few things. I hope that you will take it in so that it holds fast to your heart in the right way, ponder it, and where, in practice, you have some doubts and questions about it, clear them up and follow that path. Above all, the feeling ‘I am a teacher’ must be wiped away. We must recognise, ‘I am an everlasting student.’ The students of today may be students with you for some days. After that they may go away. You are not like that. All your life you must study and teach the children. So you must study with some care at home. You must go on studying always and go on practising. It is only by taking on some such toil that we will have done the country great service. If the country, in turmoil today, is to be made a land of peace, this responsibility lies on the teachers. By the time the Bal Vikas children of today come of age, the country will reach a peaceful state. So if you ask what is true service of the country, the teachers' service is the true service. You must take this as a great good fortune. If through me, one single person, ten people are good, that is enough for me; the country will be the better for it.
The country is like a great machine. In it each person is a bolt, a nut, a screw or a pin. We must not fall into despair, thinking, ‘What is lost if I alone do not do it, in so big a world?’ That machine rests even on one pin. If we are as fits our place, the machine called the country will run well. So we must be ready to do, in the right way and with all our heart, the work that comes to each of us in our place. That is: work is worship, duty is God. These two we must make firm. I hope that, staying in this way, within these three days you will make changes and adjustments, one with another, in what you did not know and what you have learnt, and so go back and take part in your work again with new energy and joy. You must try to set right the problems among you and the hardships you have by consulting one another and through advice. From time to time you must also give the valuable help that is in you. For all of this, our Organisation, is like a garland made of flowers. In it each flower has its own fragrance. So each must give the advice that comes to him, and through it we must make it a new garland, a beautiful garland, a fragrant garland. In the programme we have arranged for these three days many people of experience and responsibility will give you some ideals. You must take their talks to heart well, live them, and so try to put them into practice.