In plain words
‘As your feelings are, so are mine’
Only when such changes and additions can be made will this institution flourish well. Merely saying, “We have come for Swami, we have come for Swami,” does not mean you have come for me. How many of these students too have said this? “Swami! We have come only for You; You are all we want, You are all we want,” they say. For how long? Until they pass their examinations, until they take their degrees. After that a madness seizes them. What madness? Marriage madness. When this marriage madness takes hold, they make lame excuses about their parents and slip away out of sight. Go wherever you like. But be good. See to it that you do not break our ideals in the least. Still, it is not that there are no good students. Here and there, one lucky one in a hundred, in a crore, there are those too who cannot leave Swami. With whatever feeling they have, with that same feeling I too look after them with affection, see that they lack nothing, and give them the responsibility that suits them. “Yad bhāvaṃ tad bhavati.” As your feelings are, so are mine. I am just like a mirror. As you are, so is the reflection, reaction, resound that arises in you.
Teachers must kindle zeal and encouragement in the students and strive to shape them
So what has happened has happened. From now on at least, do not let it happen like this! Today is the holy day of Sankrānti. Krānti means change. The sun is setting out from the south toward the north. “The moon was born of the Manas; the sun came forth from the eye”: turning this vision of ours to the north, we must make it travel toward the best path, the highest path. From now on, keeping this discipline and these rules properly and giving each one the right responsibility, our professors too must make the effort to kindle zeal and encouragement in the students and shape them well.