Birendranath Bardoloi, or Bardoloi Sir as he is affectionately known to students, is the second son of Late Lokapriya Gopinath Bardoloi (Bharat Ratna) and Late Surabala Bardoloi, who was one of the dearest devotees of Bhagawan. He taught English in a private college of Guwahati for six years and then became the Founder-Principal of Rangia College, Assam from 1964-1979. It was during his principalship of the College that he learnt of Sri Sathya Sai Baba as the Avatar of the age and became a humble devotee of His. Responding to his inner urge to leave everything behind him and be at Bhagawan’s lotus feet, he came to Prasanthi Nilayam for good. He taught English language and literature in the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning from 1980-2004. He continues to be involved all along in social welfare activities in villages across Assam.

It was about a decade between my visit to Prasanthi Nilayam in October 1970 and the great responsibility of teaching His students that Bhagawan Himself entrusted to me in December 1980 in His newly established college at Puttaparthi. In my book, ‘Loving THE LOVE’, while endeavoring to bring to light the omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence of Supreme Love in the form and name of Sri Sathya Sai Baba, I have also spoken of, at some length, why and how I came to be at His divine lotus feet – to call myself a humble devotee of His.

Teachers Should Nurture the Love for God in Students

At Bhagawan’s command, I joined the college on a Navami day in 1980. I was taken into a degree class by Dr. Prabhakar Rao who headed the Department of English. He introduced me to the boys and asked me to speak a few words to them. I told them in very clear terms that they all had been the ‘Gopas’ and ‘Gopikas’ who had flocked and frolicked around Lord Sai during His Krishna Avatar at Vrindavan. He had graced me now with the opportunity to be among them on the plea of teaching them English language and literature. Back in the teachers’ staff room, Dr. Rao expressed his displeasure at my “uncalled for” elevation of the boys to a level. He complained that the boys were a noisy lot who would never pay heed to classroom teaching. Dr. Rao had come to the college on a leave of absence from his parent college. He soon left Swami’s college to rejoin his own.

In this context, I would like to state that if we, as teachers, cannot nurture the love of God and His dear ones in our hearts, all our so-called knowledge and scholarship would become as dry and parched as a desert, thus a barren blank. We should all know that love is an outcome of the heart and not of the mind or the intellect.

If we look back in to our own school and college days, we will realize that young people are intelligent enough to take care of themselves; the only thing the teacher has to do is to inspire and awaken them and not just inform and explain.

Education for Life

Once in the mid 1970s, I had the great fortune to live inside Trayee Brindavan for about three months at a stretch. It was a treat to see Him as Sri Krishna seated on His throne with the hostel boys surrounding Him in sheer ecstasy. The front sitters facing Him would not even leave room for Him to move His feet. There was a daily evening session inside the Mandir wherein interactions including Bhajan singing took place between the Master and His followers. It was all about ‘education for life’ with Love as the director of the divine drama with its exposition, development, crisis and resolution of crisis. Bhagawan saw to the fulfillment of His mission by creating among these youth a sense of belonging to their Alma Mater, or rather Mother Sai. In the Sai educational system, the entire community of a school or a college has to uphold togetherness, harmony and unity. And Bhagawan says that where there is unity, there is divinity. It is small wonder then why Bhagawan laid so much importance on an ideal community living in the hostels.

The Heritage of Our Most Ancient Wisdom

With the inception of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning in the year 1982 at Prasanthi Nilayam under the Chancellorship of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba and the Vice Chancellorship of Dr. V.K. Gokak, education imparted in its campuses for both men and women soon became a model for the UGC and the Ministry of Education, India. Here, in our University, the heritage of our most ancient wisdom and culture has been happily wedded to the most modern advancements of today’s scientific world. Here, all teachers are highly dedicated and give their best to the students. In return, students also take in as much as they can, whatever is given to them in the classroom. Discipline, Devotion and Duty is the hallmark of the institute. In other words, everybody involved in running Bhagawan’s schools and colleges, spares no pain in order to come up to the standard He has laid down for the upkeep and enrichment of His property, I mean His dear young ones. A visit to an Annual Sports & Cultural Meet of the institute held at the Hill View Stadium is enough for an onlooker from any part of the world to know for himself what Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba means by education.