Sai Baba's was not a theoretical instruction but an invisible influence that transformed the inner self. Baba wrote no philosophy or expounded any doctrine. He would speak in cryptic and highly symbolic manner. Such utterances were like some prophetic commands that gave a powerful impetus to the thoughts and lives of all those who came within His radiance.

He would often speak in parables leaving his devotees to work out the answers:

'A man had a fine horse, but no matter what he did, it would not run in harness. An expert suggested that it should be taken back to the place from where it had come. This was done and it became tractable and useful.' The explanation of the story is that the horse is the ego. As commander of the physical and mental powers of man it is useful but self-willed, and therefore causes endless trouble. Taking it back to its source is re-absorbing it in the spirit or self from which it arises. It is the return to the source, which purifies and enlightens. From there the ego issues forth again no longer an ego but a conscious agent of Spirit.

Another parable goes like this, 'Some robbers came and took away my money. I said nothing but quietly followed them and killed them and recovered my money’. The money is the faculties bestowed to man in his pure and original state, the robbers are the desires, killing them and recovering the wealth is destroying desires and realizing the self.

On one occasion a station master came to him without faith, just to see what the strange wonder worker looked like. On arrival he found Sai Baba washing out mud pots and placing them mouth downward on the ground. He asked him why was he doing that and Baba replied with caustic humour, referring to unreceptive listeners, 'Pots come to me like that, mouth downwards''. He is the giver of everything material or spiritual gains; but the recipients should have full faith and receptivity for the same.

Once a devotee seeing a thick crowd assembled there asked Sai Baba, whether all of them derive full benefit. For reply Baba pointed to a mango tree in full blossom – “What a splendid crop it would be if all the blossom seeds turned into fruit, but do they? Most of them fall off. Very few remain.”

Baba suited His teachings to the needs and capacity of the recipient to absorb it. He had in front of Him a mass, full of imperfections and shortcomings and He spoke to them - 'My Master (The Almighty) told me to give bounteously of material as well as spiritual rewards to His children. His treasury was indeed always open'.