7. Speak softly and lovingly to everyone

This is an interesting point of the code; it underwent a slight metamorphosis during Sathya Sai Baba’s 60th Birthday. In the original point the words were 'to speak softly with everyone’. It appears that many mistook this to mean the 'loudness of the voice' and neglected the aspect of the 'harshness of the words'.

A dog sometimes barks loudly on seeing its master - but all that loudness maybe an expression of love. A snake hisses very softly but its soft sound maybe a forerunner of venom, full of poisonous implications.

This point has now been placed in its proper perspective, not condemning those with naturally loud projecting voices and exalting those who, even in anger and hate, do not have the capacity of 'voice projection'.  It is now very clear - speak with love, we should try to lower the volume of our voices (most of us can do that) - but love is the essence. Harsh words screech even if spoken softly.