Sai message for the day

[Guest guest]

Swami! We often wonder at the way you instruct and advise your

students. We don't think that we, as parents, can ever do this in the

same manner as you do. You are great and benevolent, offering free

education to our children. You also teach them how they should

conduct themselves as responsible citizens in society. Your love

excels the love of even a thousand mothers. Your love is an ocean of

fathomless depth. Some of the M.B.A. boys of your Institute of Higher

Learning are here. Would you please give them a message?

 

Sai Baba: Education is not for living, it is for life. This has to be

known first. It is not the job or salary that matters. You have got

to make use of your education for the betterment of society through

service. Education is not meant to help you meet selfish ends and

self-interests. It is very strange to see students nowadays opting

for courses with one eye on the salary they are likely to get after

their studies rather than on their aptitude. Parents also think along

the same lines. This is not proper or correct. It is most necessary

to express gratitude to the society in which you are born and brought

up, and where you get name and fame besides money. You must respect

your parents, serve and please them. You should make them very happy

every way. You say that Swami's love is equal to the love of a

thousand mothers. You don't know even the love of your own mother.

How can you, then, know and estimate the love of a thousand mothers!

 

The MBA boys, after getting their degree, are going to be appointed

as managers. It is very good, no doubt But you should also know

certain things that you don't find in books. You have stuffed your

brains with bookish knowledge. But you must put it into practice. You

should also know that it is not always possible to put into practice

all that you have read in books. You have to apply your knowledge to

the ground realities and work out solutions for the problems you face.

 

As a manager, you can't simply sit, dressed in a suit, and relax in a

chair under a ceiling fan, having your tiffin and other refreshments.

You have to put to yourself the question whether you are working

justifying your salary. Otherwise, you should consider yourself a

cheat or a betrayer of the company. You have to work sincerely. You

shouldn't change your jobs and companies frequently. No one will

trust you because the new company you want to join for higher

emoluments will start feeling that you would quit any day for a

little more money, if offered elsewhere. You can come up in your

company with your skill, talent and hard work.

 

The MBA boys should know all the details with regard to raw

materials, power supply, accounting, finances, marketing,

advertisement and machinery as well. They should also be aware of the

trade unions and their activities and the kind of obligations of the

company to the government. In no case should you compromise on

quality, because you lose your name in public. The rise and the rate

of profits may be slow and low initially, yet this should not trouble

you. One day it will stabilise. You should observe every worker and

the way a machine is handled by him. You should ensure that every

worker is able to do all kinds of assignments given to him from time

to time such that you don't have to depend on one hand or a few hands

to run the factory.

 

As an MBA degree holder, in the capacity of a company's manager, you

will be under the control of the Managing Director or Board ofs. At times, you may have to consult them before taking

certain important decisions. You have to be very humble and polite in

their presence. Even if you disagree with them on any issue, you

shouldn't condemn or contradict them outright. You shouldn't oppose

them openly then and there. Take another opportunity to meet them.

Find out their mood and when they are calm and cool, you meet and

explain clearly the pros and cons of the problem and try to bring

them round to your point of view. Then, there will be every scope for

them to find a point in what you say.

 

Today you need to know another subject, Re-­engineering. When a

factory or industry is closed or bankrupt, you should investigate the

reasons for its closure. You should study every factor very clearly

and find out proper solutions to the problem and the appropriate

steps to be taken to re-open and revitalise the factory and make it

effectively function thereafter. You also have a paper on Rural

Development in your MBA course. You need to know the background,

resources and needs of the village, its atmosphere and socio-economic

conditions even before you start working in a particular village.

Three or four of you may join and start an industry on your own. You

have to uphold the basic human values unconditionally and

uncompromisingly. You are valued because of this reason only. Always

keep in view the needs of your country, the systems to be adopted,

the procedures to be followed, the national resources and national

development.