॥
In plain words
A resolve arises in Sai only when it is bound to be fulfilled. Only because there is such strength of resolve can works like these be done. You must recognise this.
Another matter. For the past seven days at Prasanthi Nilayam, morning, noon and night, they have been feeding lakhs of people well. If people feed a bare ten, they put it in the newspaper in letters as big as palmyra fruits. But though we are feeding so many lakhs of people gladly and to their satisfaction, there is no show in us and no fuss. Whom are we feeding? We are feeding our own people. Why publicise this? Some may have a doubt even about this. How did so many kinds of provisions come? Would they come without spending money? They may think so. That too is resolve. This time, everyone who came for the sixtieth birthday must be given food; there is no gift greater than the gift of food; ‘Food is Brahman’: this resolve took root in the devotees' hearts. While I was at Kodaikanal, Dr Bhaskara Rao and Karunyananda came all the way to Kodaikanal from the East and West Godavari districts and prayed to be granted the great good fortune of feeding everyone on the occasion of the sixtieth birthday. Though I tried to dissuade them, saying, ‘They will come in lakhs; it cannot be done’, they said, ‘With Swami's grace we can bear it even if crores come.’ Since this is a most holy work, I said, ‘Very well’, and agreed. Along with East and West Godavari, there came from the Krishna, Guntur and Nellore districts 5000 bags of rice in all. From Punjab came wheat, wheat flour and bags of semolina. From the sugar factories, sugar and jaggery; from Madras the pulses simply poured in! Though we said no, they came and gathered here as things gather before the wish-fulfilling tree! Would all these have come for the asking? You try asking, and see whether they come!
Money and blood must always keep flowing
That all these come pouring in without being asked... That itself is the principle of Sai's Prema. How many rich men there are in this world! Is the spirit of sacrifice born in all of them? When you have money, you must recognise the way to put it to good use. Money is like the shoes on your feet. Only when the shoes fit the feet properly can you walk. If they are tight or loose, you cannot walk. In the same way, even with too much money people cannot be happy in life. The rich understand this well. Without money, too, life cannot go on. When it is just as much as is needed, people can enjoy happiness and Śānti in life. However much water there is in the river, a dog only laps; it does not drink deep. Just so, some people, however much money they have, let it rot like rubbish thrown into a pit. It rots and stinks. That same rubbish, spread on cropland, becomes manure and makes the crop grow. That is why the resolve was made to take in this way from those who have, and to serve the villages. When money does not make one's character holy, it becomes useless. Only when blood circulates in the body is it healthy. In the same way, only when money too is in circulation is the country well. Money and blood must both always keep flowing.
No organisation in the world is the equal of the Sathya Sai organisations
We set up the Ceiling on Desires programme so that money might be turned to holy works and the country shaped in this way into an ideal. It was nothing more than that, not a work done out of greed for money. Though money is needed for the growth of the organisations, we are not asking anyone. I give responsibilities only to those who come gladly, wanting to do the work.