Bring a million flowers and do pooja with them. All will be rejected, none accepted. Bring a single lotus, your heart which is fresh; Sathya Sai will accept this and grant you both love and peace. Offer your virtues as flowers. Virtues that spread beauty and fragrance. Offer the lotus of your heart, freed from pests like lust, anger and hate. The seed of Divinity must be fostered by human effort and steady care, in order that it may blossom and fructify. Remove from your mind all traces of desire to harm others, by thought, word and deed. The reaction you encounter by indulging in behaviour that is temporarily satisfying will be disastrous. Each such act is a seed planted in your own mind, a weed that will grow wild and destroy your own peace and joy. So, be vigilant against such tendencies. Cleanse your thoughts, words and deeds and act as men on the march towards their Divine Destiny. I bless that you may succeed and reach the goal.

- Divine Discourse, Apr 21, 1983.