In plain words
Do not crane your necks for passing results. Our ideals must be lasting. Our discipline and our faith are not only until we get a seat and while we study in the college. Bhīṣma said, “Did you need Kṛṣṇa only until the war was over? Was your need of Kṛṣṇa only until you won the victory? After the war, do you not need Kṛṣṇa?” Those few words went straight into Dharmaja's heart and took root there. But in the hearts of today's students this Vijñāna, Bhīṣma's word, is nowhere to be seen. Is Sai Baba needed only until you get a seat? Is it the Sai Institute only while you study? Once your studies are over, do you not need Sai Baba's word? No, no. The word is needed always. Today you have become educated … you pass: what is the cause of it? We must not forget that cause. If we forget that word, we fall prey to every kind of sorrow. To live the eternal Satya, did not Satya Hariścandra, for the sake of his word, serve an outcaste? For the sake of a single word, Hariścandra, who had been a great emperor, became the keeper of a burning ground. Even then he did not break his word. To keep his word he sold his wife. The word itself is the bundle that holds our knowledge. The day the word is lost, the man is as good as lost. So we must keep our word. Where do these words come from? They come from thought. Where does this thought come from? It comes from the “I”. Where did the “I” come from? It came from the Ātma. So this word is nothing but a part of the Ātma. That is why we must regard our words as a part of God. One who has lost his word has lost his face. So we must guard our word with the greatest care. We must use our words so that they hurt no one's mind. We must not use our tongue to revile anyone or to criticise anyone.
Speech not defiled by untruth and the like, a body not defiled by violence and the like, a heart not defiled by attachment, hatred and the like: these three are trikaraṇa śuddhi. That is, a pure mind, a pure body and pure speech. We must study in order to guard these three. We think we study for the sake of learning. A great mistake. It is not for learning that we study. We study for the money learning brings. So we must earn not money but Jñāna. This wealth of Jñāna never dwindles. Even as life dwindles, it grows. So, with a feeling of love for all, taking God's word upon our heads, we must go on believing that Satya ever within our hearts.