In plain words
We are grandfathers already at twenty. What is the reason? In God's Name, in God's work, he spent it to the very end. That very Name went on giving him long life. All such ones he immersed in Rāma's service. Today we have no firm Bhakti; what can we tell others? Still we speak words that come to nothing; while … remain to be said, we do the work. So the vānaras are far greater than men. Even now it is the same.
Look at a small example. A little baby came to our Prasanthi Nilayam: Sāī Gītā. They brought her in a … She was eleven days old. From then on she has been with me. From then on she has never fallen sick. Other cars come and go on our road. But when my car is coming from Bangalore, she breaks her tether and comes out onto the road. That is loyalty. She keeps trumpeting. So many people know it. When the car is coming, she trumpets. What is the reason? Gratitude. She has it. Not only this. Fifteen years ago the Governor of Madras sent two deer, husband and wife. At first they lived right here. All these are their offspring. That deer was twenty years old. The day before yesterday, at midday, none of you were there. I went there. Whenever I went, it was the one that came to me first. A very old deer. At midday I fed it well with bananas and apples. As it ate, it wept. It licked my feet. And in ten minutes it died. Do you see! And I, as befitted it. After my meal I never come back down. Yesterday at midday I had a grave dug right behind the college and a tomb built. It had no illness at all. When I called, it came close, poor thing. It ate fruit. It ate an apple. It ate a banana. As it ate, it wept. I wiped its face. It swallowed and licked my feet. How much gratitude in an animal! Men have none.
Today, because studies and cleverness have grown, … is melting away. Cleverness has grown and humanness has dwindled. Humanness has simply all gone into animality. Animality has entered man. So you too must develop the qualities that are fitting.