In plain words
One must be someone who has every good quality. On the day the individual is fulfilled, on that day society too progresses. Only when society fares well does the nation too enjoy well-being. So the welfare of the individual, of society and of the nation all rests on humanness.
Rāvaṇa learned many more branches of learning than Rāma. But how did Vālmīki, who wrote the Rāmāyaṇa, describe Rāvaṇa? “Rāvaṇa is a fool,” he said. Why so? Though he had learned so many branches of learning, Rāvaṇa became a slave to the senses and, through desires that should never be desired, burned to ash not only himself but his clan and his kingdom as well. So, merely because someone has learned many subjects, you may say, “He is educated,” but you cannot say, “He is a jñānī.” True Jñāna is that which makes the principle of the Ātma, which is beyond this world, shine forth. Keeping the learning they have gained under control, mastering the senses, keeping to truthful speech and holding the welfare of the world in view, they must grow into ideal persons.
Education gives humility; from humility comes worthiness; from worthiness, wealth; from wealth, Dharma; from that, happiness comes to man.
So, if there is humility alone, we can achieve any amount. That is the quality of humanness. A good mind is the quality of humanness.
The whole of the human heart is full of compassion. Hṛt + daya = hṛdaya. But people today behave with hard hearts. They live without pity. In the end they fall prey to despair and dejection. Nature teaches us many kinds of sacrifice. Earth, water, fire, air: all of these sustain humanity in a spirit free of selfishness. The soil provides us with food. Water sustains our life and makes the land green with crops. The sun provides the energy of life and light. While nature renders so many services in this way, where has this compassion gone in man, who is born in the very lap of such a nature? In man, born of nature, even nature's own qualities have gone far away.
Today man must become not merely educated but a jñānī. Along with education there must be virtue. Along with virtue, conduct too must be good. The proper study of mankind is man. So it has been said. The feeling in the heart, what the word conveys, the ideal in the hand: these three must become one. Man today turns pustaka into mastaka. But what is in the mastaka he does not put into the hasta. Pustaka, mastaka, hasta: the oneness of these three is humanness.
Teachers! The responsibility of shaping the future rests on all of you. All kinds of conferences take place in this world. But there is a great difference between other conferences and our conferences. Those who take part in conferences held outside go as though going on a picnic, as though going sight-seeing. This is not good. Spending so much money and travelling so far, this is not what we should be doing. It is not so that teachers from all four corners of the whole of Bhārata may make friends with one another. They have gathered here to proclaim oneness. Only when we proclaim our divinity and share it with others does our humanness find its meaning. Through the feeling “I and my own”, humanness cannot reach its fullness. The truth that there is a third, society, must also be recognised.
You must be true to the name you bear, Ācārya. Ācārya means one who practises. But if we do not practise what we say, that becomes an artificial life. heart is inside, art is outside. So we must be heart, and not art. We must make our children too into ideal people of this kind. That is true sādhana. If one student goes bad, only he himself is spoiled. But if one teacher goes bad, many hundreds of students are spoiled. So care must be taken that no student takes the wrong path. Now and then one must meet the parents too, find out how the children are behaving, and strive to turn them to the right path.
Truly, our teachers are very good people. Bearing great hardships, they are doing service. Though there are many difficulties in their homes, they pay them no heed and make their time worthwhile in Swami's service and in teaching students. They regard that itself as a sādhana. Truly, the teachers, the Seva Dal and the security volunteers are doing service with great sacrifice and great Prema.