(Dec. 1939) Baba gave an explanation on pure love to a lawyer from a rural area, a simple and plain-spoken man. The following is their dialogue:
The lawyer, quite frankly but gently, told Baba, “I have heard many people talk about love, but I still don’t know what love really is.”
Baba asked, “Are you married?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have any children?”
“Yes.”
“Do you love them?”
“Yes, in the ordinary way. But I cannot say that is real love. My object is to have real love, not this worldly affection and attachment. I visited saints, in the hope of experiencing love, but so far have not succeeded in any way.”
Baba praised the man’s longing for true and divine love, and dictated the following:
“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. In all these expressions of love, the ‘I’ and ‘my’ are predominant.
“Another example: Suppose you find your child running about in tattered clothes and feel unhappy about it. It will pain you, and you will readily feel for him. You will do all in your power to see that he has good clothes and to make the child happy.
“On the other hand, if you see someone else’s child in the street in a similar state, 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 toward your own child is merely a result of your selfish feelings.
“Your feelings could be called the outcome of true love, only if your attitude toward the unknown child of a stranger in the street were the same as toward your own child, under the same conditions.
“Complete absence of selfishness is, therefore, the true characteristic and real test of pure love.”
After a brief pause, Baba proceeded to describe how this pure or divine love can be experienced:
“Pure love is not something which can be forced upon somebody, nor is it something which can be snatched away from another. It is attained after the aspirant has succeeded in overcoming selfishness, when the false ‘I’ in him does not exist.
“It might be said that it is difficult to attain and, at the same time, it could also be stated that the state is easy to reach. Paradoxical as these statements might seem, they are nevertheless true.
“It is difficult to attain the state of selflessness, as 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 to be too strong to overcome, with the result that the aspirant does not find it possible for him to attain 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 throw it away once and for all. Such bold decision methods make a task easy, which would otherwise be difficult.
“Self-renunciation is absolutely essential to experience pure love. This renunciation does not mean that one has to leave all worldly connections and affairs and go off to the jungles. On the contrary, it means remaining in the world and discharging one’s duties faithfully, yet, at the same time, keeping aloof from all attachments. This is not an unattainable ideal, but a practical goal which can be attained with ease, provided, of course, that the aspirant sincerely and boldly resolves to reach it.
“Just as a man when very hungry feels the desire for food intensely, similarly, when an aspirant deeply desires to experience pure love, he feels the longing for it. At the proper time, he gets the necessary directions and help from a Master to attain the goal of selflessness. He is then able to enjoy, finally, the bliss of divine love.”
Baba concluded by stating, “This state of divine bliss is to be experienced, not to be intellectually described.”
Lord Meher, Original ed., Bhau Kalchuri, Vol. 6, pp. 2486 – 2487.