The Unique University

Excerpt from the Divine Discourse of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Convocation Address by Founder Chancellor Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba

This day, I am announcing an event which will give you great joy. Sai is ever full of joy. Anxiety, grief and unrest cannot approach Sai, not even as near as millions of miles, Believe it or not, Sai does not have the slightest experience of anxiety, for Sai is ever aware of the formation and transformation of objects and the antics of time and space and of the incidents therein. Those who have no knowledge of these and those who are affected by circumstances are affected by sorrow. Those who are caught in the coils of time and space become the victims of grief. Though Sai is involved in events conditioned by time and space, Sai is ever established in the principle that is beyond both time and space. Sai is not conditioned by time, place or circumstance.

Therefore, you must all recognise the uniqueness of the Will of Sai, the Sai Sankalpa. Know that this sankalpa is Vajrasankalpa – it is irresistible Will. You may ignore its expression as weak and insignificant but, once the will is formed, whatever else undergoes change, it cannot change.

Fifteen years ago, while inaugurating the College at Anantapur, I had said that it will soon be transformed into a University. People thought that Sai Baba uttered those words in that strain merely to enthuse them. We established a College at Prasanthi Nilayam only last year. While doing so., I said “This will be transformed into a University next year and so, we must ensure a stable basis.” When I said so, Bhagavantam remarked: “It is impossible”. “Institutions working for twenty or even thirty years, having acquired many distinctions and equipped themselves with postgraduate faculties, have yet to realise this goal. Swami is declaring thus! What course will this Sai Sankalpa take”? he thought within himself. He knows what course it will take. Still, it appeared to him doubtful that it would become a University in the very second year of its existence.

This is the second year of the Prasanthi Nilayam College. Since Swami’s will is the Almighty Will, the Government of India has agreed to the inauguration of a University by us here. Therefore, this very day, Vijayadashami, the College at Prasanthi Nilayam and the College at Anantapur are raised to the status of constituents of the new University. This University will not be imparting in its Botany Course merely a knowledge of trees in Nature; we will spread the knowledge of the Tree of true living. It will not be imparting the knowledge merely of economics; the knowledge of theistic ethics too will be included. It will not be merely teaching Chemistry (Rasayana Shasthra); it will also unravel the mystery of “Raso vai sah,” the Supreme Embodiment of nectarine sweetness, the Atma. It will teach not only the science of the material world (padartha); it will also teach the science of the non-material world (parartha). It will not differentiate the material from the non-material or treat the nonmaterial as irrelevant to the material. We have decided that this shall be the uniqueness of the University.

This will not, like other Universities, adopt a few faculties and burden their alumni with degrees, which they can present as begging bowls while clamouring for jobs. This university will confer on its alumni the courage and confidence, the knowledge and the skill, to shape their careers by their own efforts, standing on their own feet and relying on their own strength. So, we have proposed that spiritual education is to be integrated harmoniously with the teaching of ethical, physical and metaphysical sciences in this University.

Divine Discourse | 08 October 1981 | Dasara, Vijayadasami | Prasanthi Nilayam