Na tapansi na tirthanam na shastranam japan nahi samsara sagaroddhare sajjanam sevanam vina

It is said, “Neither by doing Tapas, nor by visiting holy places in pilgrimage, nor by reading scriptures, not even by chanting Lord’s name but to cross over this ocean of Samsara, one needs to do it by serving the humanity.”

Dear embodiments of love, students, teachers, and devotees, our honourable guests Upadhyayaji, Muniyappagaru,

Just now it was said, “Paropakarartham idam shariram.” This body has been given not to eat and enjoy life but to serve and thereby find fulfilment in one’s life. Why do you study? So that you can be of some use to society tomorrow. Why do you earn wealth? So that you can share it with those who need it, who need help. When you do anything in life it should be focused on one and only thought, ‘How it is going to help others who are in need?’ That is the purpose of all that we do in one’s life.

Unfortunately with the passage of time, this thought has been lost to the various desires and distractions of the modern world. And to bring back this noble thought into the lives of all the people, education is the best medium, best tool. So today when we went to Jana Seva Vidyakendra and there is Jana Seva PU College hostel which was inaugurated, I told them that I am very happy to come and inaugurate schools, not so happy to come and inaugurate temples. I am more happy to visit schools and inaugurate them because in temples we make man out of God, but in schools we make God out of man. God who is attributeless, nameless, formless we give Him a form and a name and put Him inside a temple and treat Him like a human. We have to put Him to sleep, we have to wake Him up, we have to serve Him all through the day just like humans for our own joy, for our own happiness. But in a school when we serve the children, when we wake them up, we feed them, we teach them, we put them to sleep, it is just the other way round. In Tirupati Devasthanam also, I was told that Lord Venkateshwara works quite hard. I asked, “What time they put him to sleep and what time they wake him up?” And the MLA told Me, “Depends on the devotees’ crowd. Sometimes they put him to sleep at 12 o’clock, 1 o’clock and they wake him up at 2 am. And again put him through the rigmarole of the whole day, he has to stand and bless devotees. And certain festival days it is so hard, he doesn’t even get one hour’s sleep and rest. The Pujaris keep changing by batches but the Lord is one and the same. He stands there and serves. But we have made a man out of God. Niranjanam niketanam sanatanam nitya shuddha buddha mukta nirmala svarupinam. God who is attributeless, formless, as humans, to relate to Him, we give Him a form, He also happily takes a form to become one amongst us, to teach us our own Divinity. That is all right. But the real service to God is when we transform human into Divine.

So when the Sri Sathya Sai University for Human Excellence was being inaugurated and the minister asked Me, “Swami, what is human excellence? What do You want to do here?” And I told him in one sentence, “In any other university – in a medical university, somebody joins, becomes a doctor; in an engineering university, somebody who joins, becomes an engineer. In Sathya Sai University of Human Excellence if somebody joins, he must become God and not less.” It does not mean he will have four hands, eight hands, five heads. Not that god with form. But the principle of Godhood which is love, pure love, kindness, compassion, service to others. When Tirupati Venkateshwara Swami stands 23 hours just to serve his devotees, there is no reason why devotees should not work 24 hours to serve the Lord who resides in all. Nara sevaye Narayana seva, Manava sevaye Madhava seva, Jana sevaye Janardhana seva. So that should be the way of our people.

And then I visited our hostel of university and I was talking to all the boys. And I asked them, “What is this place?” They said, “Swami, this is Tyagajivi Kendra.” I said, “Gone are the days when it was a Tyagajivi Kendra. Now it should become a Yogajivi Kendra.” There is a great difference between Tyaga and Yoga. We are born as Rogis. We eat; if we don’t let it out, we become Rogis; what we eat, we let it it out, we become Bhogis. People are there in the society who take a lot, don’t give anything back, they only are Rogis; they suffer with Bhava roga, the disease of the worldliness. The others are those who take only – whatever they take, that is all that they give back not more. They are the Bhogis. I call them Bhogajivis. Then Tyagajivis are there who give more than what they take. And the Yogajivis are those who don’t take anything but always give, give and give for others’ sake. So time has come for our institutions to rise not just with the idea of Tyaga, but to Yoga. Not just trying to be God but to become God is the ultimate purpose of life. When I see all the children in all these campuses, when I visit them, I feel so happy because I see every year that they are inching a little closer to their Divine selves. The way they come in sixth class and the way they are now in the university it is completely different. Our university students have developed so much of devotion, so much of sacrifice, such clarity in life at that age as to what is the purpose of their life which I don’t see anywhere. It gives Me great joy that our students are developing into such selfless students, so clear, so compassionate and so particular that they must attain the goal of life. Uttishta jagrata prapya varan nibodhata. That is the idea of this university.

We have Sri Upadhayaji here who is working with Benares Hindu University and also he is working very diligently – I had a discussion right now – doing research on the idea of Indian culture, Indian spirituality. And we are working with them, collaborating to come out with a method in which we can teach the modern students the way they will understand, in their way. And he is working very hard with our university to come up with some kind of a programme for which we are going to have a conference in the month of May in Delhi. And after that we will work on a very detailed programme of how step-by-step this idea of Sanatana Dharma can be taught to the college-going children. As I always say, only one cannot do all these things. Many have to come together. And power of many is much more than what one can imagine. Sanga shakti, they say. In Kaliyuga, the greatest power is Sanga shakti where everybody comes together, they can achieve a lot. And this coming together is a new chapter in Swami’s mission. There are many many people who think alike, who believe that their lives are meant for service to others, coming together to bring about this transformation in the society.

I do not want to take much time today because there are students who are all going for their exams.

Do you have exams tomorrow morning? Oh, then day after? Maybe not you; others have. Pre university. So many classes. Somebody’s exam will be going on some point in time. But I was telling them you should not be afraid of exams. You should enjoy. You should welcome exams as an opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge. You should enjoy your exams. Do you enjoy your exams?

Students: Yes, Swami

Swami: I will get to know once your mark sheets come…But you should be happy. Challenges make us stronger. They tell us how much we know and how much more we have to grow. Assessment is a must. And therefore in a way they are assessing. But in the future, we will change the methodology of assessment as I have already spoken. And things will be in a different way. Like in Prachina gurukula system, assessment was by observation and that is how we will assess our children – how much they are learning and each teacher will be able to understand what is the need of that specific child and what that child needs to grow in the talent that God has gifted that child with. And all these changes are going to come very soon in our system and that makes Me very happy. And I feel very enthusiastic that we will be able to bring back the ancient Gurukula system not just in letter but in spirit, in every aspect of life and living in our Ashrams and campuses. The ancient Gurukula system of education will be established and every child will get his or her opportunity to achieve their highest potential in whatever field of interest they have. That is why I am travelling and explaining to all the children and teachers what is coming next, how they have to prepare for it, what is the way we will take it forward, how much time it will take.This is the effort. That is why I am going around.

So tomorrow morning again I am going out to few more campuses – Shimoga then Karwar, Jayapura – both boys and girls, Mysore and Mandya – then I will be back. After that I will be visiting Raipur hospital. A new operation theatre is ready. We inaugurate that. And then I will come back by 16th. Then I will see you on 17th.

I have to explain to them because I owe them all explanations. They will complain. They tell me, “You are busy doing too much work. You have no time for us.” But how to explain to them that I do all this only for them? I don’t do it for Myself.

Sri Krishna says, Nana avaptam, I have nothing that I have not attained nor I have anything that I have to attain. Vartayeva cha karmani Yet I perform my duty for the sake of the greater good of humanity. So you take inspiration from this that our lives are meant to serve others, to help others and while we live our lives, we should ensure that others too would get an opportunity to lead their lives in a happy way, in a contented way. And we are all depending on you children for a great future of this world. Much of it depends on what you become in your lives. So you have great responsibility on your shoulders. And I know that all of you will learn, will practise and will rise to shoulder these responsibilities which are coming your way. Consider them as great blessing that you are getting this opportunity and you will be the change agents, the transformation agents in the society tomorrow. That is a great boon, a blessing, a privilege and you must always be mindful of that.

With that, I will bring this programme to a conclusion to give you little more time to go and do your last minute revisions. I will see other students and I will come back and see you again.

Manchidi.