A SILENT BRIGHT BURNING

 
I have received your two long letters. The first one described your dilemma of how to love Baba more and more — when you do not even know whether you love Him! This gave me a chuckle indeed as it is a universal problem for all those who love the Beloved Master.

And I had another big chuckle when our Beloved Baba had already replied to your query — the more we clean our hearts of 'otherness,' the more our love manifests for Him: but the lover can never know that he loves.

I want you to remember one thing that Baba has told us — about the subtle difference between love and affection; whereas affection can be expressed and can derive satisfaction, love never seeks satisfaction and can never adequately express itself — therefore the lover never knows that he loves — the moment love derives satisfaction from its expression it is not love but affection.

Love is just a burning — a silent bright burning that never stops till it has consumed all the 'otherness' of the lover. What Baba means by the 'otherness' is, of course, our age old desires that seek satisfaction.

Love is the gift of God to man and cannot be had for the asking — one can only wait for it, and not measure the duration of the waiting by our own time. But it rests with man to obey the Perfect Master and offer Him the gift of one's complete surrender.