LOVE FOR THE MASTER AS THE WAY OF ATTAINMENT

 
The Master drew mankind through His personal example of all-compassionate love, yet He did not make it easy to follow Him. He enjoined those who would follow to "leave all."

Christ said: "He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after Me is not worthy of Me."

To follow a Master has ever required complete detachment. Many centuries before Christ, Krishna said words to this effect: "One who is never affected by circumstance, one who is calm in all trials, who no one else's moods or behavior upsets, one whose faith is never shaken, one who is cheerful even in the jaws of death ? such a one only is worthy of loving Me."

An ancient tale which illustrates love for the Master as the way of attainment has been related by Meher Baba:

"In Rama's time a yogi once did penance for one hundred years. There was another man who loved the Master. He did no penance, no fasting. He only loved Rama. One day the Master went walking in the jungle. The first yogi opened his eyes and said to him, 'Oh, Rama, when will I see your formless face?'

Rama replied, 'In fifty years.'

The yogi was frightfully disappointed and said, 'I made penance for one hundred years and I suffered much, and still fifty years to wait!"

"The next day the Master accosted the happy devotee, and this loving one asked, 'Oh, Rama, when will I see your formless state?'

Rama replied, 'After fifty more lives.'

The devotee said, 'So soon!' And thereupon he got into such an ecstasy that he died; and as he was dying he saw Rama's formless state."

Concluding, Baba added: "Love is the very essence of Godhood."