LOVE GIVES THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD

 
Fire is symbolic of love. Love is always compared with fire because the qualities of love and fire are the same ... and life is not possible without love — whether it is earthly love or divine love. Love divine burns the self and gives the Knowledge of SELF (God).

Fire is forever compared with love and love is always like fire. When one is burned by fire, one feels pain and restlessness. Fire burns through and turns a thing into ash, and so, also love burns the self — through the root of the sanskaras — and turns it into ash, so that the SELF can be realized.

Fire is only symbolic for it represents the qualities of love. In this simile of a heap of trash and a fire, the heap of trash represents a pile of sanskaras, and the fire represents love. As one flame of fire is sufficient to burn gradually the whole heap, so one drop of love from the Ocean of love is also sufficient to burn the heap of sanskaras.

If any human being receives a drop of love from the Ocean of love, his or her whole existence is changed and he or she enters into the worlds of divine love. But, these worlds of divine love (meaning the Ocean of divine love) are very vast and infinite. Unless one is burned completely (all the false self's sanskaras) one cannot experience and become this Ocean of love. In order to understand the significance of love, fire is symbolically represented; and unless a fire (love) is lighted in one's heart, no progress on the path is possible....

The fire in the path of spirituality is only love. The flames of inspiration and illumination are only mediums to light the real fire of love in the heart, and only this real fire can help anyone toward the goal. The fire that burns the trash of sanskaras is the fire in the heart; it exists nowhere else. The huge heap of trash is not collected in any place, but it is collected at the point of Infinity, which is everywhere.

The Avatar has given a flame of his love to each individual — some have burned, some are still burning and some have only to begin to burn. Nevertheless each one has that love, and it is that love that is given to burn the heap of sanskaras that each one has.