Love or charity is the attribute of the soul or the heart. Love for the world is not love, but is called lust or attachment. People speak of love, but where is it? They do not know even, what love is. It is said that love can be found by just giving the heart away to somebody, and then to go around heartless. If your heart is taken away by somebody, what is left to you? Only such a man can really realize what love is. The outer signs of a man who loves is that he gives implicit obedience, complete self surrender. He cherishes what the Beloved or the Master wants. He always wants to please the Master, not to please himself. Love is no business. It is not grown in the fields, nor bought from any shop. It is already innate in your soul but can be flared up when you come across somebody who is overflowing with love. We have got the man-body, in which this love can be developed. As I told you, love is already innate in your soul. It just requires attachment to somebody. Instead of attaching our soul to the Overself or God, who is all Consciousness, we have attached it to the body, to the outgoing faculties and the world outside. This has been the reason of our coming back again and again to the world. If we have love for God, who is already controlling us in the body, then naturally where will we go? We will go to where God is, we are not to return to the world. Love is flared up only in the company of somebody who is already overflowing with love. In His society, we will have the infection of love, the radiation of love. So who can follow this way? He who can completely surrender his body, mind and soul and also his very faith. The Beloved is everything to him. He will be ready to sacrifice everything for the Beloved. A great saint, Sarmad by name, was asked, "Well, you have met your Master, what have you got in return?" He replied, "To save the man-body, we have to sacrifice everything, money and attachments. To save your soul, you will have to sacrifice your body. To save your faith, you will sacrifice so many lives. All shackles of my body, mind, soul and faith, have been cut asunder. What more profit can there be? The very word of the Master is my faith. The very word of the Master is my life. It is the Bread of Life, the Water of Life."

    So complete self surrender and implicit obedience are the outward signs of a man who loves. Who can have it? He who does not care for all outer things. To him, the word of the Master is the Bible, the Vedas, or the Koran. After all, what do the Vedas, the Koran and the Bible contain? They give only statements of certain suchlike Masters, who were one with God, who were God in man. The very words they expressed form the subject of our scriptures. Those very words uttered by the Masters who were 'Word made flesh and dwelt amongst us', are recorded in the scriptures. If you come across somebody who is Word made flesh, His very word is the Bible, the Koran or the Guru Granth Sahib. Who can give his body, attachments, soul, and everything? It is a man who is very brave at heart. The outward symbol or expression of one who loves is that he gives implicit obedience to the Master. "If ye love me, keep my commandments''. This is what Christ said. All other Masters have said the same. Guru Nanak says, "The God-in-man is the very God, the very Guru". There is less hope for those who pay obeisance to the body of the Master, as compared with those who pay obedience to the words which He utters. For them, emancipation is definite, sure and certain. We should obey and pay respect to the words that the Master utters. Then we are sure to go back to the Home of our Father. Those who only pay obeisance to the Master outwardly and do not live up to what the Master says, there is yet time. The time factor is a necessity. That is why Christ said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments". This is the first step. Ultimately, we give body, mind, soul and everything. Such a man has got no will of his own, but the Will of the Master is his will. Just see where you actually stand. If you give everything, what remains is God. W-O-R-L-D spells world. If you take out this I-hood from within you, you are God. If you take out "L" from the word "World", only "WORD" remains. "In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God". This little I-hood, this ego, stands in our way to God. When you completely surrender yourself to the God-in-man (to the God-in-man, not the body, although we have respect for the body of course), then your "L" or I-hood is eliminated.

    There is a story of Guru Ram Das, who was the fourth Guru of the Sikhs. The Masters always test their disciples to see how far they are fit. So his Master (Guru Amar Das), gave an order to raise certain platforms made from mud. All of the disciples started building the platforms as ordered. When they were ready, the Master inspected them and said, "These are no good, this is not right, you will have to make new platforms." Again the disciples constructed the platforms. Two, three, four, five times they did this. Then the Master said, "This place is no good. There is a better place over there to build them." Well, bye and bye, all of the disciples left off building the platforms except Guru Ram Das. The other disciples began to say that the Master has grown old and is losing His faculties. Guru Ram Das with tears in his eyes said, "The Master is all wisdom, ail consciousness. If I am ordered to build these platforms and break them all through life, my lookout is only to obey His orders." He had complete self-surrender.

    You follow me? This means complete self surrender. Now, step by step, judge for yourself where you stand. If you want to meet God, then you must have self surrender. When there is no "L" then ... ? God is within you, He is not to come from outside. It is your I-hood or ego that stands in the way. This ego comes up when you are conscious of the body, whether physical, astral or causal. When you rise above the physical body, the physical I-hood is eliminated. When you rise above the astral body, you lose the astral I-hood. When you rise above the causal body, then you will completely understand who you are. Your will is the will of the Lord. The Lord's will is within you.

    The ABC starts from where? when you obey the orders of the Master. What does the Master say? He says, "Keep your life pure -- For a while leave off from outside and introvert within -- Rise above body consciousness -- Come into contact with the God into Expression Power, the Light and Sound Principle within you -- Then rise above the astral and causal bodies. You will realize what is meant by "I and my Father are One". You can then rise further into the Super Conscious state. This is the ultimate goal." The ABC starts from complete self surrender and implicit obedience to the Master, the God in Him of course. We respect His body, because that human pole is blessed at which the God Power works, at which it manifests. The man who is attached to the outward things of name or fame, how can he take even one step on the Way ?

    So this is what is always enjoined by all Masters who came in the past. They came here to bring you back to God. But the people don't pay any attention to them. They sometimes go out of their way to molest the Masters. So if we want to progress on the way back to God, these are the steps that we have to take. You must have implicit obedience. Why get stuck in the physical enjoyments and the outward things? You should rise above them.