ONE BIG ZERO!

 
That is not bad news; that is very good news! You are lucky to have so many hardships. The fact is there are no hardships, because everything in the world is one big zero! I see and experience this every moment.

Once tested by the Avatar or Sadguru, the devotee will feel as if he is about to die! It is terrible; this path of God is the harshest and most insurmountable thing possible. Still, don't worry and don't lose hope. Good times are ahead and after these difficulties, quietude and comfort await you.

Terrible suffering is the sign of happiness and peace to come. Great heat denotes the coming of rain. Great suffering and intense sorrow indicate that happiness is about to dawn. Anything beyond your capacity will necessarily change your capacity, because so long as everything is within your limits, you don't know what is beyond them. And everything concerning God and God-Realization is beyond limit! So in this way, great suffering and being plagued with terrible problems are beneficial.

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.