Love 1

LOVE

Meher Baba

Just as a thirsty man in the desert under the hot sun values water more than a heap of pearls and diamonds placed before him, so also, a true lover of God wants him alone, and considers every other object as a trifle before him.

The real lover desires no name, fame or money, but his beloved. He who does not possess such an attribute is a man full of self-interest.

25 April 1924, Meherabad, RD p318
Another version: LM2 p624

Love is the divine gift given by the Sadgurus. Even if the whole world wants to, it can never bestow such a gift. And once it is granted, not even all of humanity can snatch it away, no matter how hard it strives to do so.

Love is the divine gift. Once you know how to love, there is no trouble. Once you have adapted yourselves to the way, your hardships disappear.

11 October 1927,
Toka,
to the boys of the Prem Ashram,
LM3 p1106

A tavern-keeper first receives cash from a customer before handing him the wine glass. He checks the coin to ascertain whether it is genuine or counterfeit. Similarly, the Sadguru also demands his price - not in money, but in love, before giving you the gift of love. You can deceive a wine-seller by passing him counterfeit coins, but never a Sadguru. He has no use for false coins - the show of love...

But love entails pain - the pain of the pangs and thirst of separation while constantly burning. This gradually minimises the strength of the ego, and eventually destroys it, because love never thinks of or cares for itself. It just burns its victim in love for its beloved. This burning gradually diminishes the ego, and thus it is eventually totally annihilated. In this fire, love makes its victim realise the self.

30 March 1930,
Nasik,
LM4 p1293

Love means longing. Love means restlessness. Love means harassment. Love means separation. It is all necessary.

4 April 1930,
Meherabad,
LM4 p1299

People pray to me to solve their difficulties, saying that they love me. But there is a vast difference between love and prayer. In Persian to pray means to beg, to want, to desire something, even the blessings of God.

But when a person really loves, he gives himself over to his beloved completely. This is true love. In that there is no begging, no wanting, and no room for desires. Only the longing to unite with the beloved remains.

Love means the renunciation of the self. Prayer means selfishness, no matter how high the prayer may be. So there is a vast difference between when one prays and when one loves.

July 1931,
Karachi,
LM4 p1374

The aim of life is to realise God. How? By making the highest ideal of religion our conduct in life. This noble ideal is love. Only the way of love is the best and easiest path. It means to love only God, and none besides him.

Material love is good, but it should be selfless and desireless. Love should be absolutely devoid of lust, and it should be steadfast and unchanging.

If a woman is in the mood, she will be after one man today, another tomorrow, and a third the day after. This is not love, it is lust. Mind's tendency is that it always hankers after change - from one thing to another, one person to another, one place to another. Have love for only one and one alone.

February 1932?
Bombay?
to Pilamai Hormuzd,
LM5 p1536

The reason of my coming here all the way from one end of the country to the other to participate personally in your celebrations is your love that has irresistibly drawn me to you.

Love is a mighty force. It not only enables one to put the ideal of selfless service into practice, but would transform one into God. With love, one can follow any of the yogas most suitable to his or her temperament. It will enable an aspirant to follow the rigid principles underlying the spiritual Path, and where and when necessary, make him turn his back to the worldly pleasures for the sake of union with the beloved.

Where there is love, there is oneness, and there can be no question of any particular religion or caste or system, superiority or inferiority, and touchability or untouchablity. That these distinctions are not real has been proved, in a way, by the recent earthquake tragedy. The earthquake in Bihar was simply a manifestation of one of the laws of nature. And that disaster spared none, rich or poor, high or low. belonging to this religion or that. It was not divine wrath. It is an eye-opener to the fact that where God and his laws are concerned, there is no question of caste, creed or country.

But to realise this natural equality permanently, one has to submit to the greatest law of God, which is love. It holds the key to all problems, inasmuch as under this law the Infinite is realised completely at all times, in every walk of life, be it science, art, religion or beauty. May the world realise this highest aspect of divinity more and more.

February 1934,
Madras,
Me p6-7

Those who are united in love know no separation.

15 November 1934,
India,
Me p7

Love the one in the many, and not the many in the one.

to Kitty Davy, 1937?
India?
LA p165

Love is the fountain of life-giving water. No one and no thing can live without love. Its expression varies according to the capacity of the receiver and the giver, and in its highest form, love is divinity.

To love is to live. You cannot really live without love. The omnipotent laws of nature have this power in its divine potency pervading the universe. The right to strike at the chord of love only belongs to the brave and sturdy at heart.

Hectic search for exhilarating experiences should not be mistaken for love. They are the forerunners of grim, relentless penalties and intense suffering.

Love from its lowest to its highest expression has its ups and downs. Love suffers the pangs of separation, the stings of jealousy, and all the little pricks that a lover has to endure are the different helpmates in disguise. They stir you up and bring forward to life the most important parts of your nature. Then they no longer maintain their individual life, but merge in one common longing for the beloved.

One in love tastes the glories of life to the full. The blissful heights of joyousness and the buoyant feelings of heavenly delights are the steady steps towards divine oneness. Love surrenders to the will of the beloved, gives all to the beloved, sacrifices all for the beloved, lives for the beloved, dies for the beloved. This supreme state of love is the God-state, for what is God but love - infinite, unbounded, eternal love?

Love annihilates the lower self, and expresses the higher self. So, dear soul, long for your divine beloved till you become one with your beloved.

January? 1937,
Nasik,
LA p165

Honestly, there are many ways of testing love and faith. Love always seeks the will, the happiness, the pleasure and the commands of the beloved, always. Love never thinks of itself. That is love - that is God...

Did I ever tell you the story of Ramdas and Kalyan? Ramdas was a spiritual Master at the time of Shivaji. He had many disciples, the favorite among whom was Kalyan. Ramdas wanted to test his devotion. He asked all his disciples to come together, and he pretended to be sick to the point of death. He had put a mango over the knee-joint to simulate swelling, and bound it up. It seemed to be swollen like a tumor, which Ramdas said it was.

Then he asked his disciples whether any of them would suck out the poison from the knee-joint, saying that whoever did so would die in his place, but that he would be pleased. While all the other disciples hesitated, Kalyan arose immediately and sucked the knee-joint, but instead of poison, he sucked the juice of the mango.

This is love - to be ready to die for love of the beloved, for the happiness of the beloved. All this means love, faith and sacrifice.

19 May 1937,
Nasik,
LA p172-173
Other versions: Aw 16:2 p54, Di (7th ed.) p149-150

You will always find very many who do not obey. They are just devoted. They worship, but they do not obey. Is this clear? Obedience is more important than devotion, even if it is done unwillingly. It counts for a great deal, because afterward, in the process, duality vanishes, and responsibility falls upon one person - the Master, the one you obey. If he tells you to get up, you must. If he calls you, you must go.

Love is even higher than obedience. In real love - not ordinary love - love, obedience and devotion are inherent. Such love gives life, body, soul - all to the beloved. This love is higher than both obedience and devotion. The next step to this love is union.

Therefore, love. Give more love, and more and more love.

Big hearts always give, and give in. Small hearts take, and take in.

One day, I will explain more about love to you all. Love is not understood properly. Every emotional act cannot be counted as proceeding from love. The true sign of love is to give everything, to give and give.

One day I will explain about pure love. A mother loves her child, but that is not pure love. It is love plus self-satisfaction. In real love there is no desire for satisfaction, only for satisfying.

Nowadays even lust is taken for love. The subtle difference is missed. There is a very subtle difference between love and lust, but it is quite clear. They are two different things. You love rice and curry - this is lust. You love a cigar - lust again. You love curry and eat it, but do not give anything by the act. You finish the beloved.

9 February 1937,
Nasik,
LM6 p2092.
Another version: LA p154, 173

Love is a strange binding. It binds and unwinds. The more you bind yourself to the beloved, the greater the freedom (unwinding) you have. But such love is very rare.

In fact, love is an ocean of fire that you have to cross to meet the beloved. So love - more love - more and more love.

9 February? 1937,
Nasik,
LA p154

Love in its highest aspect is God.

3 May 1937,
Nasik,
Aw 16:2 p52

What is love? To give, and never to ask.

What leads to this love? Grace.

What leads to this grace? Grace is not cheaply bought. It is gained by being always ready to serve, and reluctant to be served. There are many points which lead to this grace:

Wishing well for others at the cost of one's self.

Never backbiting.

Tolerance supreme.

Trying not to worry. Trying not to worry is almost impossible - so try.

Thinking more of the good points in others, and less of their bad points.

What leads to this grace? Doing all the above. If you do one of these things perfectly, the rest must follow. Then grace descends. Have love - and when you have love, the union with the beloved is certain.

When Christ said, 'Love your neighbor,' he did not mean fall in love with your neighbor. When you love, you give; when you fall in love, you want...

Love is pure as God. It gives and never asks. That needs grace.

Yogis in the Himalayas, with their long eyelashes and long beards, meditating, sitting in samadhi, they too, have not this love, it is so precious. The mother dies for her child - supreme sacrifice - yet it is not love. Heroes die for their country, but that is not love. Love - you know when you have love. You cannot understand theoretically, you have to experience it.

Majnu loved Leila. This was pure love - not physical, not intellectual, but spiritual love. He saw Leila in everything and everywhere. He never thought of eating, drinking, sleeping, without thinking of her, and all the time he wanted her happiness. He would have gladly seen her married to another if he knew that would make her happy, and die for her husband if he thought she would be happy in that.

At last it led him to me - no thought of self, but of the beloved, every second and continually.

You would not be able to do that if you tried. It needs grace. Trying leads to grace.

What is God? Love. Infinite love is God.

28 May 1937,
Nasik,
PL p76-77.
Other versions:
LA p192-194, LM6 p2184-2185

William Warner: For a long time, I have been trying to find out the actual definition of love. Can you tell me what it is?

Baba: Love means a life of giving, without expectation of receiving any reward. People must give and then receive. First give, and then you will have all. But instead, people want to first have all, and then think of giving. This is not the right way.

21 August 1937,
Cannes, France,
LM6 p2207

(A lawyer told Meher Baba that he had heard many people talk about love, but he still wondered what love really was.)

Baba: Are you married?

Man: Yes.

Baba: Have you any children?

Man: Yes.

Baba: Do you love them?

Man: Yes, in the ordinary way. But I cannot say that is real love. My object is to have real love, not this mayavic affection or attachment. I have visited saints in the hope of experiencing real love, but so far have not succeeded in any way.

Baba: You must first understand what real love means. Selfish motives, even in what people call love, often deceive them, and they mistake selfish feelings for love. I will make the point clear with an example.

A person talking of love will say, 'I love my beloved. I want my beloved to be with me,' and so on. But in all these expressions of love, the 'I' and 'my' are most predominant. Another example: suppose you find your child running about in tattered clothes and feeling unhappy about it. You will readily feel for it, and do all in your power to get good clothes and make the child happy. On the other hand, if you see a child in the street in similar conditions, i.e. in torn and tattered clothes, would you feel the same and act as readily as you did in the case of your own child? If not, it shows how your attitude towards your own child is merely a result of your selfish feeling.

Your feelings could be called the outcome of true love if your attitude towards the unknown child of a stranger in the street were the same as towards your own child under the same conditions. Complete absence of selfishness is therefore the true characteristic and real test of pure love.

It might be said that it is difficult to attain, and at the same time it could also be stated that the stage is easy to reach. Paradoxical as these statements might seem, they are nevertheless true. It is difficult to attain to the stage of selflessness so long as the aspirant has not resolved to reach it. In the absence of a firm determination, the external attachments connected with the lower self prove too strong to be overcome, with the result that the aspirant does not find it possible for him to attain to his goal. On the other hand, if the aspirant with a strong will decides once and for all to achieve his aim at any cost, he finds his task easy.

For example, you have an old coat which you like very much. You cannot get rid of it until you make up your mind and boldly take it off, to do away with it once and for all. The bold decision makes the task easy which would otherwise be difficult.

Self-renunciation is so necessary for experiencing pure love. This renunciation does not mean that one has to leave all the worldly connections and affairs and go to the jungles. It really means remaining in the world and discharging one's own duties faithfully, yet keeping aloof from all attachment. This is not an unattainable ideal, but a practical goal which can be attained with ease, provided, of course, the aspirant sincerely and boldly resolves to reach it.

Just as a man, when he is hungry, longs for food, similarly, when an aspirant desires to experience pure love, he feels the longing for it, and at the proper time he gets the necessary directions and help from a Master to attain to the goal of desirelessness, and is able to enjoy finally the bliss of divine love. This is a state to be experienced and not to be intellectually described.

24 December 1939,
Bangalore,
Tr p239-242
Another version: LM7 p2486-2487

The greatest need of humanity today is love -- love divine, which is pure and selfless, which awakens man to the proper sense and understanding of his real duty in life, which is to find true happiness in giving, not in receiving; in serving, and not in being served; and in willfully participating in the sufferings of others more than in their happiness.

My mission in life is to kindle that divine spark of love in all.

23 November 1941,
in a letter to G.S.N. Moorty,
LM8 p2737

Love is its own excuse for being. It is complete in itself, and does not need to be supplemented by anything else. The greatest saints have been content with their love for God, desiring nothing else.

Love is no love if it is based upon any expectation. In the intensity of divine love, the lover becomes one with the divine beloved.

There is no sadhana greater than love, there is no law higher than love, and there is no goal which is beyond love, for love in its divine state becomes infinite.

God and love are identical, and one who has divine love has already got God.

c.1942?
India,
Di v5 p43
sadhana = spiritual practice

The spiritual Path is like climbing up to the mountain-top through hills and dales and thorny woods, and along steep and dangerous precipices. But on this Path there can be no going back or halting. Everyone must get to the top, which is the direct realisation of the supreme Godhead. All hesitation or sidetracking or resting in the halfway houses is but postponement of the day of true and final fulfillment.

You cannot be too alert on this Path. Even the slightest of lingering in the false world of shadows is necessarily an invitation to some suffering which could have been avoided if the eyes had been steadily fixed on the supreme goal of life.

If there is one thing which is most necessary for safe and sure arrival at the top, it is love. All other qualifications which are essential for the aspirants of the highest can and must come to them if they faithfully follow the whispers of the unerring guide of love, who speaks from within their own hearts and sheds light on the Path.

If you lose hold of the mantle of this guide, there is only despair in store for you. The heart without love is entombed in unending darkness and suffering. But the heart which is restless with love is on the way to realisation of the unfading light and the unfathomable sweetness of life divine.

Human love should not be despised, even when it is fraught with limitations. It is bound to break through all these limitations and initiate the aspirant into the eternal life in the Truth, so that the lover loses his separate and false self, and gets united with God, who is the one matchless and indivisible ocean of unsurpassable love.

The gateway to this highest state of being one with God is firmly closed for all who do not have the courage to lose their separate existence in the restless fire of divine love. I give my blessings to all who are thirsting for the full realisation of divinity, for they shall be the pillars of the coming era of Truth and love.

12 November 1944,
Nagpur,
Me p69-70

True love is very different from an evanescent outburst of indulgent emotionalism or the enervating stupor of a slumbering heart. It can never come to those whose hearts are darkened by selfish cravings, or weakened by constant reliance on the lures and stimulations of the passing objects of sense.

But to those whose hearts are pure and simple, true love comes as a gift through the activising grace of a Master. Such love is energising and life-giving. It breaks asunder the narrowness and the prejudices which separate man from man. It inspires man for selfless and creative action which contributes to the well-being of all, without distinction of caste, color, race, nationality, creed or sex. It lifts him from the slavishness of sanskaric attachments to the unhampered freedom of the divinely conscious soul. And it initiates him into the dynamic harmony of life in eternity.

Affirmation of the separative ego is the chief veil between man and his own divine self. But the doors of the heart have to be thrown open by the surrenderance of ego-affirmation, if God as the supreme beloved is to make his entry in the heart.

No one can realise God except through the grace and help of a God-realised Master, who is Truth incarnate. Only a God-realised Master can awaken this true love in the human heart, by consuming through the fire of his grace all the dross that prevents its release.

Those who have got the courage and the wisdom to surrender themselves to a Perfect Master are the recipients of his grace. The grace of the Master does come to those who deserve it. And when it comes, it enkindles in the human heart a love divine, which not only enables the aspirant to become one with God, but also to be of infinite help to others who are also struggling with their own limitations.

There is no power greater than love.

14 November 1944,
to the Theosophical Society,
Nagpur, Me p73

Of all the forces that can best overcome all difficulties, is the love that knows how to give without necessarily bargaining for a return. There is nothing that love cannot achieve, and there is nothing that love cannot sacrifice. There is nothing which is beyond me, and there is nothing without me. Yet I am and can always be captured with love.

Pure love is matchless in majesty. It has no parallel in power, and there is no darkness it cannot dispel. It is the undying flame that has set all life aglow. All the same, it needs to be kindled and rekindled in the abysmal darkness of selfish thoughts, selfish words and selfish deeds, in order to burst out in a mighty big spurt to serve as a beacon for those who may yet be groping in the darkness of selfishness, be it deep blue or all black.

The light of love is not free from its fire of sacrifice. In fact, like heat and light, love and sacrifice, so to say, go hand in hand. The true spirit of sacrifice that springs spontaneously does not and cannot reserve itself for particular objects and special occasions.

Just as it can never be too late or too early to learn to love for the sake of love, there can be nothing too small or too big to be sacrificed or sacrificed for. The flow of life, the flow of light and the flow of love is as much in the drop as in the ocean. The smallest thing is as big as the biggest, and the biggest thing is as small as the smallest. It all depends upon the particular yardstick with which one measures a thing.

The spirit of true love and real sacrifice is beyond all ledgers, and needs no measures. A constant wish to love and be loving, and a non-calculating will to sacrifice in every walk of life, high and low, big and small, between home and office, streets and cities, countries and continents, are the best anti-selfish measures that man can take in order to be really Self-ful and joyful.

May you one day behold the ever-shining light of love, that never dies and knows no darkness.

My blessings to you, one and all.

1947,
Surat,
Aw 7:2 p3-4

Since, in the very beginning, imagination gave a twist to substance, and importance to shadow, we, who are eternally free, find ourselves bound, having lost our original self in the maze of illusion. Therefore, despite possessing infinite bliss, we have to experience misery, worries, doubts, failure and helplessness.

When in a flash real knowledge comes, we are not what we seem, but are that infinite one. All worries disappear, because in reality sukh (pleasure) and dukh (misery) do not exist. To get rid of this persistent ignorance and to know the true value of reality, we have to experience God. And God, who is the breath and life of our lives, can only be experienced through honest love.

We have to love him silently and honestly, even in our everyday life. While eating, drinking, talking and doing all our duties, we can still love God continuously, without letting anyone know. When God is found, you can have no idea what infinite bliss and peace is gained.

I give you all my love, so that someday you can love God as he ought to be loved.

23 March 1953,
Dehra Dun,
BG p6-7

Lovers of God are called Mard-e-Khuda. When one loves God, the only longing is for union with God. 'I want to see you, my beloved,' is the constant cry of this mad lover. Circumstances do not touch this lover. People may call him mad, may make him suffer untold hardships, but his life's only desire is to see God.

23 March 1953,
Dehra Dun,
BG p7

God needs love, not ceremonies or shows. This love has to be so profound that when the heart loves him, the mind should not be aware of it.

God is equally within us all, and we must love him. When we realise him, all our suffering comes to an end. And for this we must love him in every walk of life. Love (for God) is best expressed when we give happiness to others at the cost of our own happiness. My blessings.

God is the only one worth living and dying for. If we love him intensely and honestly, we find him in ourselves and in everyone. The least trace of hypocrisy keeps him away from us. When we find him, we experience infinite bliss. We then see him everywhere and as our own self. I give my blessing for that love which will help you to love God as he ought to be loved.

1 November 1953,
Dehra Dun,
three separate messages,
GG4 p154, 158, 160

My message has always been, and always will be, love divine. When one wholeheartedly loves God, one eventually loses oneself in the beloved and enters the eternal life of God.

Like a tree, such love has branches: branches of wholehearted devotion, perfect nonviolence, perfect selfless service, self-denial, self-sacrifice, self-renunciation, truth, and self-annihilation. In this love is embodied all the yogas known to saints and seekers.

The highest aspect of this love, which surpasses that of love itself, is the aspect of complete surrenderance to the will of the beloved; that is, absolute obedience to his wishes, whatever the cost.

1954?
India,
MD p4

Love, as it is generally and commonly understood, is but an attachment, with selfish thoughts and motives involved.

Pure, real unadulterated love has in it not even a tinge of lust. Lust for sex, lust for power, lust for name, lust for fame, lust for self-comforts, defile the purity of love.

Pure, real love also has its stages, the highest being the gift of God to love him. When one truly loves God, one longs for union with him, and this supreme longing is based on the desire of giving up one's whole being to the beloved.

When one loves a Perfect Master, one longs to serve him, to surrender to his will, to obey him wholeheartedly. Thus pure, real love longs to give, and does not ask for anything in return.

Even when one truly loves humanity, one longs to give one's all for its happiness. When one truly loves one's country, there is the longing to sacrifice one's very life without seeking reward, and without the least thought of having loved and served. When one truly loves one's friends, there is the longing to help them without making them feel under the least obligation. When truly loving one's enemies one longs to make them friends. True love for one's parents or family makes one long to give them every comfort at the cost of one's own.

Thought of self is always absent in the different lovings connected with the various stages of pure, real love. A single thought of self would be love adulterated.

1954?
India,
MD p6

... For the fulfillment of the divinely ordained plan, it is necessary that humanity should throw away all its accumulated impediments, and surrender unconditionally to the abiding love of God, the unfailing and supremely universal beloved. God has to be accepted in all simplicity, and not by laboriously proved intellectual conclusions.

Wine is prepared by the crushing and further crushing of grapes, when it acquires the capacity for intoxication, which usually takes away one's command of understanding. Close and repeated feeling of love for God also brings intoxication, but this takes you towards true understanding. This understanding is not gained through reason or intellect.

As long as you remain separated from God and try to understand him, he cannot be understood. There is no separation between you and God. Lover and beloved are one. You yourself are the way. You are God.

1954?
India,
MD p16-17

To love God in the most practical way is to love our fellow beings.

If we feel for others in the same way as we feel for our own dear ones, we love God.

If, instead of seeing faults in others, we look within ourselves, we are loving God.

If, instead of robbing others to help ourselves, we rob ourselves to help others, we are loving God.

If we suffer in the sufferings of others, and feel happy in the happiness of others, we are loving God.

If, instead of worrying over our own misfortunes, we think ourselves more fortunate than many, many others, we are loving God.

If we endure our lot with patience and contentment, accepting it as his will, we are loving God.

If we understand and feel that the greatest act of devotion and worship to God is not to hurt or harm any of his beings, we are loving God.

To love God as he ought to be loved, we must live for God and die for God, knowing that the goal of all life is to love God, and find him as our own self.

12 September 1954,
Ahmednagar
Aw 2:2 p1-2. Also GG6 p93

There are three types of lovers of God. The first is the mast, who loves and knows only God. He loses all consciousness of self, of body and the world. Whether it rains or shines, whether it is winter or summer, it is all the same to him. Only God exists for him. He is dead to himself.

The second type of lover is the one who lives in the world, attends to all worldly duties fully, yet all the time in his heart he knows that this is temporary, that only God exists, and he loves God internally, without anyone knowing it.

The third type, which is the highest, is very rare. Here the lover surrenders completely to Christ, to the Avatar, to the God-man. He lives, not for himself, but for the Master. This is the highest type of lover. Unless you have such love, merely to criticise and to judge others will take you nowhere.

14 September 1954,
Meherabad,
GM p230

Love is a gift from God to man. Obedience is a gift from Master to man. And surrender is a gift from man to Master.

The one who loves desires to do the will of the beloved, and seeks union with the beloved. Obedience performs the will of the beloved, and seeks the pleasure of the beloved. Surrender resigns to the will of the beloved, and seeks nothing.

One who loves is the lover of the beloved. One who obeys is the beloved of the beloved. One who surrenders all - body, mind and all else - has no existence other than that of the beloved, who alone exists in him. Therefore greater than love is obedience, and greater than obedience is surrender. And yet, as words, all three can be summed up in one phrase: love divine.

One can find volumes and volumes of prose and poetry about love, but there are very, very few persons who have found love and experienced it. No amount of reading, listening and learning can ever tell you what love is. Regardless of how much I explain love to you, you will understand it less and less if you think you can grasp it through the intellect or imagination.

Hafez describes the bare truth about love when he says,

Janab-e ishqra dargah basi bala tar-azaq'l ast;

Kasi in astan busad kay jan der astin darad.

"The majesty of love lies far beyond the reach of intellect;

Only one who has his life up his sleeve

dares kiss the threshold of love."

The difference between love and intellect is something like that between night and day; they exist in relation to one another and yet as two different things. Love is real intelligence capable of realising Truth. Intellect is best suited to know all about duality, which is born of ignorance and is entirely ignorance. When the sun rises, night is transformed into day. Just so, when love manifests, not-knowing (ignorance) is turned into conscious knowing (knowledge).

In spite of the difference between a keenly intelligent person and a very unintelligent person, each is equally capable of experiencing love. The quality which determines one's capacity for love is not one's wit or wisdom, but one's readiness to lay down life itself for the beloved, and yet remain alive.

One must, so to speak, slough off body, energy, mind and all else, and become dust under the feet of the beloved. This dust of a lover who cannot remain alive without God - just as an ordinary man cannot live without breath - is then transformed into the beloved. Thus man becomes God.

November 1955,
Meherabad,
LH p17-18

What does love mean? We find volumes and volumes written. There are very few who have found love and who have it...

Man cannot possess love by means of anything except the gift of the one who possesses that love. No sooner you are gifted with that love, there is no duality. You can't bargain for love. No amount of penance, meditation, puja, etc. can give that gift of love. Once that gift comes from God, it burns up all veils of sanskaras.

He alone knows the real meaning of love who receives the gift of love from God. That lover who so receives it cannot express it to others. His mouth is stitched, and not even smoke comes out. No sooner is love visible, and others can sense that he is a lover of God (e.g. by tears, japa, puja, etc.), he is not the lover of God really. I tell you with my authority. The gift of love knows no law...

1955,
Meherabad,
LJ p63-64

When you become one with God, the bliss that you experience is eternal, infinite. There is no break in that bliss. It is continual. And then you can make others happy. You get the authority to make others happy. The only thing I have been repeating ever since the first time I came is love God. Age after age I have been saying nothing but love God.

Love -- everyone now uses the word love. It has been made so very cheap. If one really loves, one would never utter that word.

What does it mean to love God? It is a very, very great thing. The true lover of God never says anything. He forgets that he loves God. How will you love God? How should you love God? Not through meditations, not through so-called prayers or other things. There are two ways. One is to leave all and everything. That means to have nothing of your own, not even your body... to renounce absolutely everything. Everything means not only your surroundings, but everything, including yourself.

The second thing is something great. There you don't have to renounce anything. You can lead a family life, be in the world, do your work or business, attend your services, attend theatres, parties, everything. But always - do one thing. Constantly think, constantly try to make others happy, even at the cost of your own happiness. That is the second way of loving God.

21 July 1956,
New York,
Aw 4:2 p24-25

You have to love God so much, till you are goofy with love.

July 1956,
New York,
HM p245

Love burns the lover.

Devotion burns the beloved.

Love seeks happiness for the beloved.

Devotion seeks for blessings from the beloved.

Love seeks to shoulder the burden of the beloved.

Devotion throws the burden on the beloved.

Love gives.

Devotion asks.

Love is silent and sublime, devoid of outward expression.

Devotion expresses itself outwardly.

Love does not require the presence of the beloved in order to love.

Devotion demands the presence of the beloved to express affection for the beloved.

1958? India? PS p108
Another partial version: GM p313-314
and PL p84 (both missing one line)

Beloved God is in all. What then is the duty of the lover?

It is to make the beloved happy without sparing himself. Without giving a second thought to his own happiness, the lover should seek the pleasure of the beloved. The only thought a lover of God should have is to make the beloved happy. Thus if you stop thinking of your own happiness, and give happiness to others, you will indeed play the part of the lover of God, because beloved God is in all.

But while giving happiness to others, if you have an iota of thought of self, it is then not love but affection. This tends to seek happiness for the self while making others happy. For example, a husband's affection for his wife. The husband wants to give happiness to his wife, but while doing so, he thinks of his own happiness too. Or a mother's affection for her child. From this affection, the mother derives happiness purely out of giving and seeking happiness for her child.

May 1958?
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina?
PS p108, Aw 5:3 p53

God is not fooled by any outward show. He is completely deaf to ceremonial prayers and ringing of church bells and chanting of mantras. He is never taken in by such superficial veneer, never ensnared by such blandishments. Love alone can move him, love alone can conquer him. Without that, nothing is of any avail.

1963? India, IS p79

It is love, not questioning, that will bring God to you.

LJ p26

Love Book Two

Index - Book One