Sathya Sai Baba The World-Avatar Teaching and Revelations

immortal name. No other village has such fortune, but you have been
slow to recognise this. For twenty years now, efforts have been made
to calm the waves of faction in this village, years during which many
other villages sought and won my grace and blessings. There have
been many occasions on which devotees have pleaded with me to
move out of this miasma and settle down in Bangalore, Madras or
some such town, or if I preferred, some other quiet rural spot. But let
me tell you here and now; this tree has to grow at the very spot where
it sprouted; it will not be transplanted; I shall not give up this place, no,
not I. This place will be transformed into Thirupathi and those who are
little boys and girls today will surely see it in all its magnificence.
23.11.60, (16-1/3)
Enter upon that task of spiritual discipline from now on; that is the lesson
you must learn here. Otherwise, pilgrimage leads only to the accumulation
of vessel - you buy vessels from wherever you go: from
Rameshwaram, Thirupathi, Kashi, Haridhwar, Madhura or Kumbhakonam.
That is the merit you get from pilgrimage, a storeroom full of
vessels. You come from long distances, incur heavy expenses, suffer
in the cold, in the open or lie in the shade of trees and wait for days
expecting the longed for interview with me; but in the end, you return
and dissipate the peace and happiness you derive from this place.
Devotion is something sweet, soothing, refreshing and restoring. It
must confer patience and fortitude. The devotee will not be perturbed
if another gets the interview first or if another is given greater consideration.
He is humble and bides his time: he knows that there is a higher
power that knows more and that it is just and impartial. In the light
of that knowledge, the devotee will communicate his troubles and
problems only to his Lord; he will not humiliate himself by talking about
them to all and sundry, for what can a man, who is as helpless as himself,
do to relieve him? It is only those who have that implicit faith in
God, who will deign to communicate only with the Lord and none else,
who deserve nectar (amrita) of immortality.
The gross body should be ever immersed in holy company, the subtle
body, that is, the thoughts and feelings, should be ever immersed in
the contemplation of the glory of the Lord. That is the sign of the devotee
He who shouts and swears and advertises his worries to every
one he meets and craves for sympathy, such a one can never be a
devotee. They make earnest men lose faith in Godly ways; earnest
men feel they are superior to these pseudo-devotees. And this is a
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