In plain words
We lose the traits of God and take on the traits of the devil.
Many people, looking at Me: “Swami! Your body is reaching eighty-one years! And yet You do not look it!” they marvel. I tell them, “Sir! I do not eat impure food. I do not breathe polluted air. The devotees' prayers themselves are the air I take in. Things being so, where could My radiance go!” I have no illness of any kind. I have no ache of any kind. Because of a mistake a boy made, I fell down. Then My leg was broken. So walking is a little difficult. But then, I have no wish to walk either. Be that as it may, I come, and I see the devotees. What hardship is there in this! What suffering is there! No suffering of any kind is Mine. When I make the devotees happy, great Ānanda comes to Me too. Suffering, pain and hardship never come to Me, not even in a dream. With Me it is ever Ānanda! Ānanda itself is My food. There is no Ānanda anywhere that surpasses My Ānanda. If for some reason I do not come to the gathering one day: ‘Alas, poor things, how the devotees must be suffering! How long they must be waiting! How sad they must be!’ and I am much distressed. No matter what the time, I set out and come. So do not think that I am in distress or in pain. I am telling you these things today to show you this Ānanda that is Satya.
You too, whatever hardships come and whatever sufferings befall you, must place your Bhakti and faith in God, face them bravely and keep winning through. If we go on thinking of God, no worry of any kind will find its way into us. No hardship, no loss, no sorrow, no grief can get in. I am always happy. You too must always be happy. ‘Happiness is union with God.’ When you are one with God, no suffering will even show itself to you. Bodily, there may be some pains; mentally, there may be some worries. You must see to it that this mind and this body are not joined to the pure principle of the Ātma. Then no suffering of any kind will befall you. This itself is the teaching of Satya the Navarātri gives. Every day many sufferings arise, many worries come up, many matters find their way into our mind. With the feeling, ‘All these belong to someone or other, not to me,’ we must pay them no heed. What comes on the wind goes back on the wind. I never give such things any room at all.
“For man, karma alone is God. Karma alone is the cause of pleasure and pain on this earth.” So we must not think that someone or other is making us suffer. We must not blame anyone, thinking our sufferings come to us because of them. Our hardships and losses do not come from anyone else. The Kauravas tried very hard to torment the Pāṇḍavas. But the Pāṇḍavas did not give in to them at all. What was the reason? Nothing but their unwavering Bhakti and faith towards Kṛṣṇa! ‘When Kṛṣṇa Himself is our companion and our shade, why should we fear, however much anyone torments us!’ they thought. In the same way, you too believe that Sai is in your home, with you and at your side.