In plain words
At home, too, parents must teach their children good, exemplary, joyful ideas. Reading books alone is not what matters most. Bookish knowledge is turning into merely superficial knowledge. Our children need practical knowledge, they need common sense, they need general knowledge. But in today's children common sense and general knowledge are both at zero.
Teachers too must give our children the strength and ability to grow into exemplary citizens. All they put into children's heads is useless rubbish and petty matters going on in some country or other. Today moral principles are nowhere to be seen. Schools and educational institutions keep on multiplying. But the power of education keeps on dwindling. That is, the quantity of educational institutions has grown, but the quality of education has fallen. What is the reason for this? We are not giving students the right books.
Morals and rules are left behind in the books; the whole heart has become a house of foul smells; every act has become an act of selfishness: this is the progress in today's learning.
He does harm to the very one who did him good; he throws down the very giver who fed him; he mocks the very guru who taught him: this is the progress in today's learning.
Is this the advancement we should gain from education? Human values must be brought into the students' hearts. We must share out among the children the sweets of speech that are the sacred sayings of the elders. Learning that hands out degrees merely to fill the belly is not the learning that matters most. Education should be for life, not for a living. How many beasts, birds and animals live in this world! Which college did they go to? Which school did they go to? So studies are not needed just to stay alive. Studies are needed for life. In education we must look for elevation.
Teaching children discipline; bringing humility and obedience into their hearts. Teaching them ideals fit for the good of society: in these and such matters teachers must play the leading part. We must fill their hearts with the oneness that knows all as brothers. First of all, we must root out in them the divisions of community, religion and caste. We must teach the truth: Fatherhood of God, brotherhood of man.
There is only one caste, the caste of humanity There is only one religion, the religion of love There is only one language, the language of the heart.
If such equal-mindedness is taught to children whose hearts are still tender, you can judge for yourselves what fine citizens they can become in the future. So, first of all, teachers must set the right example. A teacher must not only teach; he must spread his message and wake others up by putting it into practice. Today's teachers must be like the drill teacher. The drill teacher does not teach by writing on the board. Saying ‘One, two, three, four…’, he does the exercises himself and shows how. In the same way, whatever good qualities you want to teach the children, you must first follow them and practise them yourselves, and then teach. That is the right and true education that lived in the ancient hermitage schools of the ṛṣis.
In a human being there are two: the body and the mind. For the body, standing still is very easy and running very hard. But for the mind, running is easy and standing still is hard. This is the difference between the mind and the body. Man is the one born of the mind. Man means mind, and mind means man. Recognise that these two are one. Manu-ja: that is, one born of Manu the emperor. What are the marks of Manu? ‘Good qualities, a good intellect, steadfastness in Satya, Bhakti, discipline, the doing of one's duty’: these truly are what a human being must follow. These are human values. Only one with a good mind has human values. Good mind is God mind.
In what way have children's qualities kept dwindling in today's world? What were the paths the ancient great sages lived by? You can see in a single word how great a difference there is between the ancient age of those days and the modern age of today. In those days, parents, gurus and ṛṣis all used to call children ‘God-boy, God-boy’. But by the time this modern age began, they had added a ‘zero’ to it, and went on calling them ‘Good boy, Good boy’.