In plain words
‘There is none greater than Hari,’ he went on teaching his fellow students.
For everyone, Īśvara alone is what matters most. What is in all beings is the very nature of Īśvara. ‘Īśvara, of all beings.’ My hope is that you too, like Prahlāda, will give everyone the zeal and encouragement fit for worshipping the Divine and for thinking of the Divine. When you carry such teaching far and wide, you can bring about a divine transformation in society in a single moment. We must begin this first in our own home. Parents can nourish only the body. But who can nourish the Ātma principle? God alone is our refuge. So parents must awaken in their children the vision that recognises God, and set them the right example. ‘The body of five elements is frail; when it will be cast off, no one knows.’ However many ways you nourish this body, on what day, at what moment and in what way it will go, who knows! Is it the mark of a human being to pass the time in food, sleep, fear and mating, like cattle, birds and beasts! No, no, no. We must make every moment worthwhile by thinking of God. That is what parents should teach their children. That alone stays in our home, at our side, as our companion and before our eyes, and protects us. To teach children this sacred path is the chief duty of parents. Teachers too must follow this path. Teachers today teach children only what is in the ‘textbooks’. So all our young men must go, each to a school, and give the children the right teaching. When you are out anywhere, if you see anyone talking nonsense, give them two slaps on the cheek. Never mind even if they hit you back. But first of all you must punish such people. ‘For you, born a human being, it is not good to speak impure words like this about other men's women’: so you must teach them sense. Will others refrain from tormenting the likes of you, who torment other men's women! Will the world spare your wife and your children! First of all, you must love others. You must respect others. Only then can you too receive Prema and respect from them.
Today, above all, young women and young men must cultivate humanness. We set up the ‘Youth Wing’ in the Sathya Sai Organisations for this very auspicious work. They must be guides on the path. Those who roam the bazaar as they please are donkeys, not young men. That is not the life we should lead. In the bazaar, donkeys go about braying as they please. You are not a donkey. ‘God’ is in you. Recognise this Satya. Keep hold of your sacred humanness. Guard your own honour. This is the chief duty of the youth.
Some children hide trashy novels inside their textbooks and read them on the quiet. To anyone watching, though, it looks as if they are reading their textbooks. In this way they are deceiving even the teachers. If any bad thoughts arise in your mind, you must warn yourselves, ‘I am a human being, not a beast.’ You must behave in a way worthy of the name ‘human being’. Only then will you have the right to say, ‘I am a human being.’ Only when you nurture human qualities will what you have heard and what you have read come to have value.
Embodiments of Prema! I have great Prema for you. No one can describe My Prema as being like this or like that. There is no difference of any kind in My Prema. The only match for My Prema is My Prema itself. Let anyone think what they like; it does not matter. I have no fear at all. Many people revile even Me. They print all kinds of ‘nuisance’ in the papers. They print the ‘nuisance’ that comes from foreign countries too. Is one who follows foreigners a true journalist? No, no. A true journalist does not follow others like that. He gives weight only to what he has seen and experienced himself; he pays no heed to the ‘nuisance’ others have printed somewhere in London or in America. Those who hear all such things and spread them are like dogs. When a dog barks somewhere, another dog in the next street hears it and barks too. So one who follows others is nothing but a dog, not a man. Whatever anyone may think, our Satya is our own! Satya is right within you. You are united with Satya. So you must pay no heed to untruth. Is someone saying something… Let them say it. Some dogs or other will keep barking. We have nothing to do with them. We must regard those who criticise with evil intent as dogs, not as men.