Passage 16

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In plain words

The field of the heart must be pure. The strength of speech too must be full and firm. The power of will too must go with it as its true companion. When these three are not there, you cannot take in this matter at all. In the language of Vedānta these were called the power of will, the power of action and the power of Jñāna. So when you use your words properly, put them to good use and live them in the right way, you will become pure and reach the highest level.

One more thing: since all of you here are students, and since teachers too are present, I want to announce one more thing. Students and teachers alike must recognise for what purpose our institutions of learning came into being. We did not start this as a mere field of business. We did not think of this as a trade. We started these institutions of learning hoping for the future of the world, keeping the welfare of the world in our hearts, intending that at least a few ideal students might come forth. We hoped that these students would spread the ancient refinement and the ancient culture and to some extent shape the country on the right path. Today all institutions of learning, thinking of themselves in many ways as some kind of trade, are falling into wrong ways. You may be seeing it in the paper. From next year these colleges are doubling their tuition fees and the many other kinds of fees there are. They have been giving notice of this in advance. But the matter of our institution goes the opposite way.

From next June we are removing whatever fees there are, medical fees, games fees, lab fees, library fees, tution fees, all of them. It is all free education. You must recognise that this itself is what we are doing for our income. Education is not a trade to be given and taken for money or in any other way. Sāvidyāye vimuktaye. This is what education rightly is. Education is what liberates. Education is what makes pure. Education is what shapes man into man. Education is what makes humanness blossom through a divine life. Education is what makes one able to stand on one's own strength. Education is what gives the ideal of sacrificing even one's blood for a sacred ideal.