Page 22 - All India Magazine Jan-2025

Teaching by example
Sweet Mother, Is it possible to teach the ideal to those who do not
understand it, and how can it be taught to them? Are we, instruc-
tors and teachers, worthy of this formidable task?

What we want to teach is not only a mental ideal, it is a new idea
of life and a realisation of consciousness. This realisation is new
to all, and the only true way to teach others is to live according to
this new consciousness oneself and to allow oneself to be trans-
formed by it. There is no better lesson than that of an example. To
tell others: "Do not be selfish," is not much use, but if somebody
is free from all selfishness, he becomes a wonderful example to
others; and someone who sincerely aspires to act in accordance
with the Supreme Truth, creates a kind of contagion for the peo-
ple around him. So the first duty of all those who are teachers or
instructors is to give an example of the qualities they teach to
others.
And if, among these teachers and instructors, some are not
worthy of their post, because by their character they give a bad
example, their first duty is to become worthy by changing their
character and their action; there is no other way.
CWM 12: 357-58

Sweet Mother, For the students who know that they will go away
from here after their studies, is it not necessary for them to go out
from time to time in order to be able to adjust themselves later to
ordinary life?

There is no difficulty in adapting to ordinary life; it is a bondage to
which one is subjected from birth, for all carry it in themselves by
atavism, and even those who are born to be freed need to struggle
seriously and continuously to get rid of this atavism in order to be
truly free.
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22 All India Magazine, January 2025