Passage 10

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In plain words

Do not think evil. Do not do evil.

Students, you are very fortunate. When there are so many lakhs of people in the world, when there are crores of people, that this rare chance has come to these few: what great good fortune it is! If, among you who have had it, even a few stand out as examples, that is enough. You may hold any kind of authority. You may enter any kind of job. You may carry on any kind of business. You may take up any kind of farming. There is nothing wrong in it. While doing your duties, you must see that you do not give up faith in yourselves. The root cause of so many hardships, so many losses, so many sorrows, so many evil ways and so many injustices in the world today is the lack of faith in oneself. The man of today cannot trust even himself. The students of today are all like this: with a hundred rupees in his pocket, one says, 'I may spend these; keep these hundred rupees with you.' Can one who has so little faith that he cannot guard his own hundred rupees trust others at all? From the very minute he hands it over he lives in suspicion: will he give it back to me or not? That is why, first of all, we must build up self confidence, faith in ourselves. Only when we develop self confidence does self satisfaction become ours. Only then does contentment come to us. That contentment is not to be had however much wealth is given. Without faith in oneself there is no such thing as contentment. 'Asaṃtṛpto dvijo naṣṭaḥ,' they said. For those who are discontented, everything is loss. So, so as not to fall prey to losses and hardships, we must cultivate contentment. That contentment is to be had only in faith in oneself. So, once self satisfaction has come, no one needs to ask again. No one needs to tell. Self sacrifice: one makes the sacrifice oneself. When this sacrifice is made, then self realisation is ours.

So, when we give up the delusions that Ātma-sākṣātkāra will come some day, somewhere, for some reason, and practise these feelings and sacred sacrifices, then and there it is ours in every way. So every student must enter into good deeds.