In plain words
There are devotees by the crore. You do not recognise the difference there is between a devotee and a disciple. Anyone may be a devotee, but a disciple they cannot be. He said. Who is a disciple? Speaking of the guru, ‘guru pāṭhōpa dēṣṭā’, and ‘śiṣyasthakō vōguru bhaktaēva’: he who says, I have nothing but the command of God, is a disciple. How far have all of you obeyed My command? Where is your right to call yourselves My disciples! He who says, ‘None but You; beyond this I know nothing,’ is a disciple. He who follows Me like My own shadow is My disciple. He who stays anywhere and prays is a devotee. So there is a great difference between a devotee and a disciple. A disciple means two bodies and a single life-breath. There must be no feeling that you are separate and I am separate. I and you are one: this must come as oneness. But such ones are not to be seen in the world. In the world there are crores upon crores of devotees. There are no disciples, He said. Then Śyām was deeply hurt. For me there is nothing but the service of Your feet, is there? Afterwards Bābā went in from that seat. He called Śyām aside. In this world you alone are My disciple. All the rest are devotees. Right then, holding His feet, Śyām, saying, ‘None but You, none but You,’ gave up his life. Bābā was one who lived 82 years in His life. In these 82 years, not even once did He let a single drop of water fall from His eyes while people looked on. Only when Śyām passed away did He shed tears, and only three drops. All the devotees who were there then: ‘Why are You grieving? Everything is in Your hands, is it not? Why do You grieve so much?’ they said. ‘Madman, it is not that I am grieving; the sin he committed has been atoned for; because a little of it still remained, I am wiping that away too with these three drops of Mine,’ He said. Every act Bābā did, every word, every glance: all were only for uplifting the devotees, and for nothing else.
At the very last, Abdullā too came close. He said He would come again and give darśan. When Abdul asked when that would be, He declared, ‘In six years,’ did He not! ‘When, Swami?’ he said. He said He would give it to him after six years. The first Avatāra: Mahārāṣṭra. The second: Madras State. When this body was born, Andhra Pradesh was in Madras State. ‘Then in what way will You give us darśan?’ he said. Then He had told it to Abdul alone. ‘It will come to you under the name Sathya,’ He said. That itself is what has come about now. The bodies are two, but the divinity is one. But the one was only to make divinity known. This one, now, is to give divinity. The one to come is to teach divinity. That is Shirdi Sai, Sathya Sai, Prema Sai.
The reason I speak to you of this today is that 28 September is the birthday.