Sathya Sai Baba The World-Avatar Teaching and Revelations

Through devotion alone can that self-realization be attained. Devotion
purifies the heart, elevates the feelings and universalizes the vision. It
also brings down the grace of God; for, the clouds have to come over
the fields and pour rain; the plants cannot rise up to drink the life-giving
fluid. The mother has to bend to the cradle to fondle the child. Devotion
has the power, to bring the God down. (...)
The Lord enters the hearts of the devotees and resides there. So, the
Rishi Narada had to conclude that the hearts of the devotee are the
grandest things in creation!
That is why I condemn all signs of weakness and call the sense of
weakness itself a sin, an unpardonable sin. (...)
Do not bend and cringe and barter your self-respect. Do not believe
that you are this little lump of body. You are the indestructible, immortal
Atman, of the same nature as Brahman itself.
Have gratitude to the creator who poured into you the nectar (amrita)
that ensures immortality; he requires you to stand firm in the face of
joy and grief. 25.2.64, (17-212/213)
You call yourselves devotees. No one can become a devotee by naming
himself so; nor, by others calling him so. Devotion involves dedication,
with nothing held back; not even a wisp of ego should remain.
His command alone counts; his will prevails. Like a drunkard, the devotee
has no sense of honour or decency, pride or conceit. 25.1.63, (18-
1/2)
You should cultivate an attitude of inseparable attachment to the Lord,
who is your very self. If he is a flower, you should feel yourself a bee
that sucks its honey; if he is a tree, be a creeper that clings to it; if a
cliff, then feel that you are a cascade running over it if he is the sky, be
a tiny star that twinkles in it; above all, be conscious of the truth that
you and he are bound by supreme love. If you feel this acutely, not with
the gross intelligence, but with the subtle intelligence, then, the journey
will be quick and the goal can be won. The gross intelligence keeps
you walking but, the subtle flies you to your destination. The gross is
weighed down by the body; the subtle transcends the body and lightens
the burden. 30.1.65, (18-257/258)
Man is a diamond, not a piece of glass. He can scatter brilliance all
round him and shine, provided he goes through the grinding, the cutting,
the sublimation. Sublimation transmutes man into God. By subli-
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