Passage 7

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In plain words

God does not bow to money and spoil His own name. Wherever money gathers, impurity arises. So all Swami's wealth is Prema itself. By this very Prema keep your life going. If Prema alone goes with you, all your karmas will be cleared away.

Embodiments of Prema! Since you have come here, fill your hearts with Prema. In earlier days the ‘singer’ Saluri Rajeswara Rao used to come here. He used to sing, ‘In the cool breeze on the bank of the Yamunā, the flute of Śyāmasundara..’ Those songs set every heart overflowing. His voice and his feeling are very sweet. His feeling is known to himself alone, not to others. His son too has come here now. Saluri Rajeswara Rao and Adinarayana Rao, both of them, used to come to Me. It was they who sang the story of Sai. Wherever such pure-hearted people may be, their music lives on, fulfilled. Those who live by selling their music find no Ānanda. But they never stooped to trade; they sang so that Ānanda welled up in the heart. Though they are gone, their fame lives on for ever.

When Ghantasala himself was in great hardship, he used to sing, ‘Swami! Will You not bring me to the shore out of my hardships?’ Lying in hospital: ‘How long is this pain to last? Will You not set me free from this pain?’ he used to sing. To see him, I went to the hospital. “Ghantasala! Do not think about this at all. These things come like this to test your heart. Pass in this,” I told him. Though he is gone, the remembrance of God's name that he did will stay for ever.

The one wealth that stays with us for ever is the remembrance of God's name! Whether you have a voice or not, whether you have a tune or not, keep up the remembrance of God's name in your heart. That itself will come as great merit and help you. Morally, physically, spiritually and in worldly life, in everything, it will be your companion and your shadow.

The remembrance of God's name nourishes not Bhakti alone; it nourishes skill, attachment and detachment too.