In plain words
Our land of Bhārata, famed from ancient times as a holy land, a land of renunciation and a land of yoga, is turning today into a land of indulgence. What we need above all is renunciation. What does renunciation mean? It is not leaving house and home, wife and children, and going off to the forest. You must renounce the fruit that comes from your desires. That is true renunciation. We must put away our silly, crazy desires. Only then will our heart become a white cloth. God loves just such a pure and sacred heart. God expects nothing from you. He has no desires of any kind. The desires are yours alone. If you turn your desires to the good, God is greatly pleased. Only then will your mind, your family, your society and your country know Śānti and happiness. First of all, we must establish Śānti in our own family. Then we must spread it out to society. Only when society is set right is the country set right. If the country is to have Śānti, first of all Śānti must arise at the level of the individual. Only when there is Śānti in the individual is Śānti in the world possible. When there is no Śānti within the individual himself, how will there be Śānti in the world?
Students! Girl students! Seek the Śānti of the nation. Our land of Bhārata is very great. From ancient times too it has laboured for Śānti. But today, because the craze for Western civilisation has engulfed it, the knowledge of its own faith has dwindled, and ‘peace’ has gone and turned into ‘pieces’. We must not turn the ‘peace’ within us into ‘pieces’. We must not forget our culture. We must keep Śānti in the heart. We must be joyful at all times. Smiles must dance on your lips. In no circumstance at all must you put on a ‘castor-oil face’. You must keep on smiling and smiling. When the person before you sees you, he too must feel great joy. You must live your life smiling and making others smile. We must be joyful and share joy with others. With good qualities such as these, the people of Bhārata of those days went on living their lives. Even today there is no lack of such people. But they have fallen a little behind in their economic condition. Their hearts, though, are very broad indeed. When we make the heart broad, we can achieve any great work at all.
All of you must recognise the Satya that this festival day of ‘Onam’ came into being so that the heart may be made broad. We must experience Ānanda at the level of the individual and of the family, and share that Ānanda with society. Then everyone too will be joyful. ‘Happiness is union with God.’ Attain that Ānanda. Giving one another zest and encouragement with Prema, all of you live together in fellowship. Greeting one another with Prema, ‘Hello, hello...’, all must become one, and not say ‘goodbye’ to one another and part. Saying ‘goodbye’ is very wrong. You must become a ‘good boy’. You must foster purity of that kind. Time is very precious. If you waste time, life itself is wasted. So you must not waste time.
There is still a programme to come. So I will not trouble you by speaking at length.