Sri Sri University
Opens Its Doors

Bangalore, India

Today we have commenced our University in Bhubaneswar, Orissa.
The first batch of students have arrived at the University, and this first batch of students are our pride, because they are the foundation of something that is going to be very big and very great.

The Sri Sri University in Orissa is based on values and universal cooperation.
The best of East and the best of West will be provided to the students in the University, and they will become Global Citizens, and take their skills and their brilliance all over the world.

I congratulate our Vice Chancellor, Dr. Mishra, and the President of our University, Dr. Rao and all others. They have all worked very hard in a short time. They had to make all the logistics even through the rains in Bhubaneswar. They had many challenges and through the challenges they were able to start the University on the committed date. Better facilities will come along as we move on.
I also congratulate all the students; you all have a very bright future ahead of you!
Even before the University started, I had gotten calls from all over the world, with people suggesting how they can associate with the University. And I am very glad that today, on a very auspicious day, we have begun the University. I am sure this first batch of students will be leaders in our fraternity.

Knowledge, personality, economic development, social responsibility and leadership in society, are all what we are expecting from our students. And I am sure that they are going to bring a new hope. They will instill a new hope in the economy when there is economic downtrend, moral degradation, social injustice, poverty and many other challenges.
I do not wish to recount all the challenges that society is facing today. But, I am sure these youths will be well equipped to wipe the tears of millions and bring up the economic growth and prosperity back in the world.

As students, you need two things:

1. You need to have a bigger vision, and
2. You need to have the willingness to equip yourself with as much knowledge as is possible. Not confining yourself to the syllabus, but seeing beyond the syllabus as well. You need to demand from your teachers what you want to learn. I think it is very necessary for students to be very enthusiastic

There is an old saying in Sanskrit, ‘If you are a student, don’t long for comfort. And those who are hooked on to comfort cannot attain higher education.’
Vidhyarthina Kuto Sukham; Sukharthina Kuto Vidhya.
That does not mean you should be uncomfortable. But focusing only on comfort and fun will result in education being in the back foot. So, if you keep knowledge in the front, then comfort comes to you for your whole life.
Wisdom is something which draws comfort, both inner comfort and outer comfort. So we need to focus on wisdom and automatically comforts will follow us.

I am very glad and confident that this first batch of students will be shining examples of our big hope for the world.
I would also like to congratulate the faculty that is assembled. You are preparing for a new foundation for humanity.

The University in the future will have Osteopathy, Naturopathy, Yoga, Ayurveda and many other disciplines; especially the rare ones that are not available in the country.
For the first time in India, we will be introducing Osteopathy, as a course. Nobody in India knows about Osteopathy. Just like we have Allopathic Medicine, similarly we have Osteopathy, which concentrates on correcting the musculoskeletal framework (joints, muscles and spine), whereby many diseases get cured. It also improves the immunity and overall good health and wellbeing of a person. So, we are starting a course on this in our University.
And then, The College of Good Governance is also going to begin in our University. Today, people from every field require some qualification or the other. But in politics that is absent. That is why the quality of politicians has gone down so much, like never before.
Also in the administration – from the level of the Village Panchayats to the Parliament, we need to create proper administrators and leaders of society. So The College of Good Governance is something that is also in the pipeline. It is going to come very soon.

Now, the courses on Business Management and Business Administration have started today, and in the coming days will see knowledge from across the world being made available to our students. We have started this University with this very purpose in mind.

See, we send our kids to far off lands. We send them to Australia, London, America, and we arrange for a lot of money to be spent on their education abroad. Even then our children do not get treated very well there. They have to bear with so much violence there. Our country has lost a lot of its children. We have lost some of our brilliant children to such countries.
So, I thought, the world’s best teachers could be called to India, and children could be given that level of education here in India, for which we send them to foreign countries. If we have such a University here then we do not have send our children abroad to other countries. We can save so much of the expenses and also feel satisfied that our children will be safe here. Keeping this in mind, we have started a world-class University here in Orrisa.

I would also like to say that in the coming years you all should send your children to this University. The education your children will receive here will be equivalent, if not better than the education they would receive abroad in some of the foreign countries. They will achieve academic excellence through this University.

Once again, I give blessings to all the students, the young minds who have joined the University. Focus on your studies and I shall come and visit you all soon!