Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

THIS is a day full of significance, not only for Ananthapur or this District or this State, but, for all other States also. On the occasion of the School Day of the High School for Girls in this town, as early as 1964, I had announced that what this town needed most was a College exclusively for Women. That sankalpa (resolve) has today realised itself. Very soon, this will become a fullfledged completely equipped educational institution, with a status peculiar to itself. The prompting behind this college is not the search for reputation, or the desire to propagate a cult, or the hope of monetary profit. I know that fame is a fickle figment, that reputation is something that rots, that profit is defiled when it is measured in terms of cash. I have allowed this college to rise, because it will instill in the minds of the students the ancient ideals of Sathya, Dharma, Shanthi and Prema, ideals that are delineated in the Vedas, described in Shasthras, illustrated in the epics, practised by countless generations of the men and women of this land and confirmed as best suited for individual and social progress by its saints and sages, law-givers and leaders, for centuries.

Every student born and bred in this land is the inheritor of this precious heritage and has a right to know it and benefit by it.

Prahladha told his father that "the father who leads the son to God is the only father who deserves the reverence due to that status." Fathers who lead their sons into the vortex of sense pleasure, the volcanoes of physical passion, the boggy marsh of pride and pomp - are unaware of their duties and responsibilities. So too, an educational system that keeps children away from God - the only refuge, the only kinsman, the only guide and guard - is really a system where the blind are engaged in blinding those who depend on them. India has forgotten its real source of strength; it is seeking strength in the debilitating hunt for cankerous comfort. This college will feed the roots of that genuine culture of Bharath, which alone can revitalise the people of India, and through them, of the whole world. My visit to East Africa has shown that people there are eager to know about the culture and philosophy of India so that they may learn the secret of peace and joy. Women, who were all these centuries, the bulwarks of Indian culture, the guardians of Indian spiritual wealth, are fast succumbing to the flimsy attractions of foppish culture, as is evident from the modes of living and the social behaviour of many educated women. This is the result of the artificial and empty system of education, as well as the subtle pulls of cheap literature and shoddy films. Women are the mothers of the coming generation; they are the teachers of that generation, during the first five years of life.

This is part of the general task. Every act of Mine, every word, will have only that goal in view. Atma-vidhya (science of the Self) alone can fix the mind in Dharma. The students here will be given a glimpse of that Atma-vidhya; they will develop a keen desire to know about it - knowledge and desire that will stand them in good stead, when they encounter the problems of life.

The war of Kurukshethra, for which the Mahabharatha is the background and the stage, lasted for eighteen days; other wars have lasted longer, seven years, thirty years, and even a hundred years! But, however long, they ended! They had a finish, some time! But the battle between Jeevi and Maya, the individual and the fascinating, deluding wiles of the really unreal Nature with its enticing multi-fariousness - this battle is continuous; the earliest man got entangled in it; the last man on earth will have to fight it. It can bring victory to the Jeevi (individual) only when, like Arjuna, he chooses the Lord as his charioteer and surrenders his judgement, his desires, to Him. Maya can be conquered only by allying yourselves with the Master of Maya, Madhava. This is the lesson that Atma vidhya teaches, this is the lesson that children in India have a right to imbibe; children from all over the world can benefit immensely from it.