To grow flowers, we must first clear a plot of ground. To grow love, we must clear the weeds of attachment and greed from our hearts. Soil must be watered and fertilized. The heart must be prepared by learning compassion for all. When the tender shoots of service and devotion sprout, they must be kept free of the insects of egoism.

We start by expressing love toward God as we would to a mother or father, brother or sister. But with time we see that there is no limit to the attributes and manifestations of God. The world is created from and is the substance of God. And so we begin to recognize God in all and express love as service and sympathy for those in need. With time, we feel the joys and sorrows of others as our own. By serving others, we revere God within them and draw closer to the source.

Love is God, God is love. Where there is love, there God is certainly evident. Love more and more people; love them more and more intensely. Transform the love into service; transform the service into worship. That is the highest sadhana.

Sathya Sai Speaks 4

Service is the natural expression of love in action. When our hearts are distressed at the suffering of others, we have no choice but to alleviate that suffering. That is the true test of love. Service is rendered as to a friend, not as a duty. Service is performed as a token of love and humility, gladly given.

Love is not an obligation; it is an expression of our inner divinity. Service should not be performed with the idea of one serving and another being served. Selfless service is a natural expression of love, given joyfully and spontaneously. Love is our nature; it is the fountain of divinity, our inner source, identity, and potential.

When you love with the consciousness of the omnipresent atma (inner divinity), you live in love, love flowing and flooding in and through you and all else.

Sathya Sai Speaks 7

To experience the flood of love requires spiritual practice. It is acquired by purification of character. The prerequisites to experience divine love are truthfulness, nonviolence, inner peace, and adherence to duty. When we live a virtuous and moral life, we can experience selfless love.

If we really want to experience prema, we will have to understand what peace, or shanti, means. If we want to follow the path of peace, we will have to accept the path of dharma (spiritual duty). If we want to follow the path of dharma, we will have to accept the path of truth.

Summer Showers 1977