In plain words
Man labours for the praise of others, but he does not do the deeds that God would praise. You must do whatever is dear to God. You must give whatever is dear to God. Instead, if you simply follow your own liking, how can that be dear to God? What God likes is anāhata Prema alone! Your heart is the one thing He wants. That itself is the abode of Ānanda, that itself the abode of Prema. That is the support of everything. If, instead of offering such a heart, full of sacrifice, full of Prema, full of Ānanda, you offer things made for show, God does not take them. He makes a show of taking it, but throws it away. Give the poor the help they need. If they are suffering from the cold, give them cloth to cover themselves. Give them whatever they need. But if you go on giving whatever you yourselves like, God does not like it.
‘There is a great power in this boy’
In those days, after we came back from the school at Bukkapatnam, Easwaramma would sit all the children down by her: ‘My dears! What happened at school today?’ she would ask. One boy: ‘Mother! Today a teacher made our Raju stand on the bench,’ he said. When all the children were finding fault with him: ‘My boys! You must not speak like that about your teacher. He would have done that only if our ‘Sathyam’ had done something wrong. A teacher does not punish his pupils without cause,’ she said. ‘Sathya! What wrong did you do?’ she asked me. Then I told her what had happened, just as it happened.
‘Those who have written down the notes I gave, bring them and put them on the table. Those who have not written them, get up on the bench and stand,’ he had ordered. I had not written them, so I got up on the bench and stood there. ‘Sir! I have not written the notes, but I can answer the questions you ask,’ I said. ‘Oho, so much pride in you!’ he said, and told me to stay standing on the bench like that for three periods. Meanwhile a teacher named Mahbub Khan came that way.