Don't be a child crying for paltry things. Are you a six-foot-tall baby or a full-grown man? Be a man! Don't stick to petty things. Don't get upset over trivialities.
Even supposing you do have an excuse or a cause for provocation, and your mood is upset in the excitement of the moment, don't stick to that one petty cause and keep on brooding over it with swollen [puffed out, grumpy] cheeks and a cloudy expression. Immediately after the excitement dies down, try to cool off and forget what happened. Take the cause of irritation out of your mind forever. Don't try to bring it back again and again to memory, harboring it and crying over it like a woman or a child. Immediately after you are angry, forget everything.
Still, if you don't do it, what do I care and why should I? You all are well aware of my love for the ashram boys and the close connection I have kept with them for the last two years, avoiding one and all of you mandali and the outside world. But when the time came, I gave them up, too — my most loving pets! I have also kept away from those who are devoted to me. In short, I cut off my connection even with those I loved best.
So, too, at any moment, I can disconnect with the rest of you who are with me now. Even at present, I have very little connection with you, being preoccupied with the two boys all day and night, playing with and teasing them. I come here [to the mandali's rooms] only occasionally, once or twice during the day. And when the time comes — as it will — I shall cut off my connection with these two boys also, remaining quite alone by myself. Gradually, I have been cutting off all ties and connections.
Likewise, mark my mode and taste for dressing. I wore that black [kamli] coat with a hundred patches for years. I also wore the chappals [made by Kanhoba Rao Gadekar] until the last moment when their original material had been totally replaced. And now you see that I have had a new coat sewn and wear it with new shoes and stockings, keeping myself well-dressed, spruce, and tip-top — quite the reverse of what I had been doing. And who knows, perhaps I may one day give up all these clothes and remain only in a langoti, or even stark naked!