In plain words
But the state of things today is this: when hardships, losses and sorrows come, it changes one way. When comforts, joys and happiness come, it changes another way. What wavers like this cannot be called Bhakti. All these are changes of Prakṛti. All of these are things that will pass away some day. I am not praying to the Paramātma for the sake of what passes. I am praying for the sake of the Ānanda of my Ātma. We must hold this faith firmly.
Never have I asked anyone that after you pass you must not marry, or must not go to your parents, or must not take up any kind of job. I have not said it. But in these children some kinds of bad feelings, bad thoughts and bad schemes arise. Some say, as Sundaraiah said just now, ‘Swami, even after passing I will not go, I will not go; we will stay right here and do Swami's service.’ What do they do next? The moment they have passed, when there is no chance to study further, the children pretend, as children, to be staying with Swami. With ‘We cannot stay here for ever, can we?’ they write to their parents. What do they write? ‘Father, I am not well’; ‘if I write a letter this way or that, Swami will send me away from here’: they lay some artificial plan or other and have letters sent from their parents. This is a very wrong thing to do. This is treachery to God. You could ask Me and go happily, could you not? So you need not take a crooked path. If you want to go, I will never stand in the way. Go out properly, and you must develop this kind of atmosphere outside as well. But you must not use words lightly. For everything: promise. Promise. You do not recognise what value there is in it. No one need give a promise. What you came for is education. Study well. Get good marks. Get an ‘O’ grade in our Institute, and as long as you are in the hostel live with a good name and good conduct. After that, wherever you want to go and whatever you want to do, bow to your parents' command and carry on your full life. But do not let such distortions spring up in you and follow a distorted path. So study well and keep good conduct, discipline as discipline, whether you are here or anywhere else.
The other day, six months ago, the holidays came, a month of them. How were you while you were here? When you left here you gave words like these. But after going there, how did you behave? Each one is himself the witness of his own heart.