What is the deeper meaning behind Sai Baba's teaching to 'renounce the sense of difference'?

Sai Baba's instruction to 'renounce the sense of difference' is a core tenet of his philosophy on oneness. As illustrated in Chapter 9, this teaching followed his revelation that he was the very dog and pig a devotee had fed. He explained, "Sometimes I am a dog, sometimes a pig; sometimes I am a cow, sometimes a cat... in such forms I roam." By asking her to renounce the sense of difference, he was instructing her to look beyond the external forms of beings and recognize the single, divine consciousness—himself—that resides within all of them. True worship, in Baba's view, is not limited to rituals but is achieved by seeing and serving the divine in every creature, thereby dissolving the illusion of separation between oneself, others, and God.