In plain words
Why ten acres of land that grows no crop? A little good land is enough.
Even a little of the principle of Prema, pure, spotless, eternal and selfless, is enough. It is enough if we hold even a little gratitude for having received this Ānanda. Hearts that have neither that gratitude nor that Prema are deserts. So what is the effort we must make today? We must make the right effort to cultivate this vast and precious land of ours. It is not that you lack the strength and capacity to cultivate it. All the children say it in every speech. ‘Swami! Give me the strength to experience this. Give me the strength and capacity to take Swami's command upon my head and walk by it.’ In fact they take it to mean that it is not in them. This is not something to be handed over. It is already there. We are unable to see rightly what is already there. What is the reason? Your attention is not on it. If your attention is on it, you will try to put it to good use in every way. In human life, only when we recognise a person or a thing well does it carry its right meaning. Whatever we desire, we must first inquire into it well. Then we should set about enjoying it.
Today, failing to grasp what really matters, without inquiring at all into what our class is, what our subject is, what our studies are, what our discipline is, what our manners are, we want studies. We want studies, we must take a degree somehow. We say we must get an 'O' grade, but how can we get it?
Among today's students, not one in a hundred takes the trouble to read the textbook; they fret only that they must pass; today's education has turned into a sham.
Merely by learning by rote and writing the examination, do we become students, do we become educated? What good does this education do the world? It is no use to you. It is no use to the world. All the learning you studied you forget within a single year. The learning you studied has no connection at all with the job you do. The learning that is life's chief support is General knowledge, common sense.