In plain words
Wherever you go, ‘I am I’. Someone or other will come and ask you, ‘Who are you, sir?’ The answer you give to that is ‘I am I’. If he does not understand, let him do as he pleases. Do not forget your own meaning because he did not understand. Let him say what he likes: ‘I am I’. When you go on in this way, you will achieve any amount. There is scope to teach Vedānta in so many ways. Then again, in this principle of Vedānta some Vedāntic words have special meanings. Tomorrow I shall tell the inner meaning that belongs to this principle of Vedānta.
Know for certain that I am Sai; cast off attachment, give up your efforts; your outer bond with Me has broken off now; no one, however great, can hold Me.
This I said on 20 October 1940. So, saying, ‘Swami declared His true nature on this 20th of October’, devotees take it as a special day and keep a great festival with much enthusiasm. There is no need for us to think of days as special in this way, as a birthday or a wedding day. Once in the Dvāpara age Rukmiṇī Devī, one of Śrī Kṛṣṇa's eight queens, came to Śrī Kṛṣṇa: ‘Lord, today is my birthday. So come to our house for a meal,’ she pleaded. Satyabhāmā, who was right beside her, grew angry. ‘If it is your birthday, it is my wedding day. It is the day Śrī Kṛṣṇa tied the tāli for me, so He must come to my house and no other,’ she said. In this way the birthday and the wedding day became the cause of so much quarrelling. Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who is God, for His part was ready for everything. So you must not in the least think of a birthday or a wedding day as special. All must recognise the oneness within the principle of God.