Passage 11

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In plain words

So we see so many such divine things in the Rāmāyaṇa and in the Bhārata. We must try to recognise this unity in diversity, the oneness that is present in all. Only then will we have Śānti. So, to rid ourselves of the bad qualities in us, we must give our parents the gratitude due to them, win a good name for the institute we studied in, and wherever we go keep our conduct in our own hands. If our conduct itself is not right, our whole life is ruined. Our character, our character itself, must give us our true worth. The great ones of the world today, whether elders of wide renown or noble souls of name and fame, won that glory by their conduct. We must believe that ours is the human race. We must give that human race the honour that is its due.

The honour of a race rests on morality; a race without morality falls to ruin; a race that has morality is a true race indeed: listen, O valiant son of Bhārata!

You are a Bhāratīya. Bha means the light of God. Rati, the one who longs for it. He alone is a Bhāratīya. We must long for that divinity. In it we must learn every kind of knowledge. Nārada studied sixty-four arts. You, for your part, are learning physics, chemistry, botany, zoology. He learnt sixty-four arts. Yet Nārada, who had learnt sixty-four arts, had no peace of mind.

Seek the good of the world

Students! There is one thing above all that you must recognise. Daśaratha had Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa, Bharata and Śatrughna taught the four Vedas and many lesser śāstras besides. The one who had learnt more than all of them was Rāvaṇa. Nobody in the world knew the arts that Rāvaṇa knew.