Building Spiritual Capital

I feel glad to speak a few words at this workshop meant for our teachers.
The workshop, Building Spiritual Capital has been organized for our
teachers who are the backbone of our school. Day in day out, sun up, sun
downthey work diligently in a spirit of dedication. It is because of their
sincere, hard work our school is regarded as one of the best educational
institutions in Arunachal. Since its a fully residential school, parents leave
their children in our custody from a very tender age. In a way, our
responsibilities become manifoldwe not only have to provide them the
mainstream education which would help them become self-reliant, we have
to also instill values of life in them. In fact, the parents leave the students
here as they have deep reverence in the values of Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Ma
Sarada and Swami Vivekananda. So it becomes an additional responsibility
on us to teach the students in the right kind of values. And the best teaching
takes place when the students dont feel like being taught. The purpose of
this workshop is to discuss issues relating to learning spiritual values,
teaching the values, problems faced in the process, and how they can be
sorted out.
The workshop is about Building spiritual capitalso there are three things
in this context. To build spiritual capital, first we must understand what is
spiritual. And then we need to build on the spiritual capital slowly and
steadily. Now what would we term as spiritual capital. The word capital
is often used in the context of economy. It simply means acquiring enough
resources so that it can be utilized in the development of society. The
spiritual capital is also required for the development of society, as it has
been said Atman Mokshyartha, Jagat Hitaya cha.
We have the teachings of Swamiji, Thakur and Maa to begin with. Swamiji
has saidEach soul is potentially divine. Education is the manifestation of
divinity that is already in men. Every day, we come across the negative sides
of people. We see how people are filled with negative emotions like hatred,
jealousy, violence. Often one doubts the divinity of human nature. But the
truth is it exists under the layers of evil, it exists in all of us, though we are
not aware of it. How Swamiji has exhorted usThis very moment let
everyone of us make a staunch resolution: I will become a Prophet, I will
become a messenger of Light, I will become a child of God Such positive
thoughts must be imbibed.

Such thoughts have power to move mountains, power to alleviate the

suffering of mankind, power to change the world to a better place.