Seeing these volunteer badges that I have brought for distribution, you feel happy that you are soon to be decorated, and perhaps you hope, by means of this badge, to exercise authority over others and escape heavy work, during this Birthday Festival. I am not giving these badges to endow you with authority, or confer leisure on you or because it is customary on such occasions to have some women and men moving about with badges. This will impose heavier work on you, but, if you look upon it as work, then you have no right to receive these badges. It entitles you to welcome and serve your kith and kin who are arriving at this place from all parts of the world.

The badge should not burden you with the weight of conceit; it should not make you feel superior, as if yours is the upper hand and the recipient of your service has the lower hand. It is not a boon that you drop into his hand but an offering that you dedicate at his feet. It is the

expression of kinship between your nature and the nature of those whom you serve. In the Principle of the Self (Atma-tattva), he and you are the same; he and you are but two waves of the selfsame sea. Take this badge as a call to sadhana, as an introduction to a spiritual adventure, an exercise in the practice of prema. (SSS Vol.5, p. 163)

The badge does not confer any privilege on you, it only puts responsibility on you. You are wearing my picture on the badge; but I am inside your heart, all the time. Press it on your eyes when you go to bed and when you wake up in the morning, pray, ‘O Lord, may all my acts be pure and holy.’

The badge is an indication of the Sai within you, it warns you that you are not a bundle of passions and emotions, you are not this body at all but the pratibimba (reflection) of God, who is the bimba (the object). The badge has also the Om, the Pranava, on it; honour it, meditate on its meaning, value it as an initiation.

This badge is a sign to indicate that you are unselfish, that you are willing and eager to serve. It is no decoration or prize gift. To have this, and to wander about, lolling in the street, indulging in loose talk and evil habits is treason to those who expect to be helped by you; it is also sacrilege.

This badge is a sign of My Love, of My Compassion. It is an inspiration, a lesson, a blessing! It expects you to be virtuous, an example to all, in devotion and enthusiasm.

Wherever you are, at whatever time, do the duty that this badge demands, whether you have it on, or not. Help others as much as lies in your power; if you cannot give them adequately, at least, feel the agony. ‘Alas! How much is the suffering they undergo! Lord, relieve it soon,’ pray thus with all your heart. (SSS Vol.7)

The badge is not a decoration, which can be secured without a ‘price.’ It is a symbol of high character, generous feelings and steady endeavour. It is the external indicator of internal enthusiasm and strength, skill and faith. As iron is drawn by the magnet, these qualities that shine through you, will draw the dejected, the downcast and the distressed towards you. If you are proud and self-centred, blind to the kinship that binds all in fraternal love, the badge is a betrayal. (SSS Vol.9, pp. 30-31)

Badge on the shirt is a distinction you must win, and not a decoration to be paraded. (SSS Vol.9, p. 35)

If I pin the badge on your apparel, you will unpin it soon; when it is taken off the shirt, you will feel relieved that you have been released from the obligation to love and serve. You will only play a temporary role in a drama, donning the badge and doffing it. Wear the invisible badge of a volunteer of God at all hours and in all places. (SSS Vol.9, pp. 35-36)

The badge does not endow you with authority to boss over those who are badgeless. It should not be insulted by harshness, pride or persecution. Once you have been blessed by it, you should not indulge in loose talk, or loose living, lewd behaviour, or evil habits like smoking, gambling, drinking and scandalising others. You cannot attain positions of leadership, if that is your ambition, without years of sincere seva to the people. Unless you build your career on that foundation, leadership will be but a five-year fair! (SSS Vol. 10, p. 19)

Do not go about strutting with pride that you have a badge and a scarf; go humbly among the people with love in your hearts and softness in your speech and sweetness in your acts. It is a badge which a ‘servant’ alone is entitled to wear, not a master lording over others. The badges rest on your hearts, don’t they? If your hearts are filled with pride, and a sense of superiority over others who have no badge on their chests, then, the hearts themselves will be

affected by the evil aroused by this decoration. When you disregard or disrespect the badge, you are disregarding and disrespecting your own inner reality. The badge and scarf do not entitle you to roam about in the bazaar, or lounge in the hotel outside the Nilayam, indulging in low talk and vulgar habits. It does not allow you to exercise authority over any one or appropriate anything from any one.

It is a call and a challenge for you, to provide comfort and consolation to those in need, to seek out means and methods to increase the ways in which you can help others and contribute to their joy. (SSS Vol.12, p. 154)

I am giving these badges to endow you with Authority. Take this Badge as a call to Spiritual discipline, as an introduction to spiritual adventure, an exercise in the practice of Love. (S, p. 95)

You must realise now that this badge which I gave you is not a passport for easy life; it means strenuous routine, the giving up of comfort, the acceptance of hard toil, sleeplessness and sacrifice. (SSS Vol.5, p. 25)

Do not feel that the scarf and badge that you wear are impediments to freedom. They are reminders of the high mission to which you have been initiated, the keys to your Realisation of reality through the sadhana of seva. Even when you do not wear the scarf or parade the badge, you must be eager and alert to render seva to fellow-beings who need it. (SSS Vol.13, p. 51)