Love is innate in our souls. God is love, and our souls are of the same essence as that of God. Love knows attachment to somebody. We are conscious beings, our souls are conscious entities. Our soul should be attached to the Oversoul, which is all conscious. Instead, it has been attached to the world. This is the reason why we have been coming back again and again. It should have been attached to God, or the God-in-man. If our soul is attached to Him, the result will be, wherever He will go, we will go. He is not to return to the earthly sojourn, then why should we return? So, what is love? Love is the attribute of the soul. It is already ingrained, innate in our soul. It requires attachment always and is life-giving for a man. Just like water gives life to a fish. If a fish is taken out of the water, it will simply die. There is also one sort of plant that grows in water. The more water it gets, the more it grows. Similarly, those souls which are endowed with the love of God, naturally they enjoy it just like life-giving water. It is the water of life for the soul. A man who is really detached from the world is not affected by it. Renunciation truly lies in the fact that we are not tied to the world, to anything outside. A man who has got love within him, love of God, is attached to God so much that all other things leave his mind, he is not attracted by anything else. For instance, if such a man is sitting here, there may be hundreds of others sitting around him, but he will be wholly and solely absorbed in the Master. This is a feat of love. Love also knows sacrifice. The Masters say that those who would like to play the game of love, should come with their heads cut off and placed in their palms as an offering. Even then, they would not mention what they have done. God knows the very trend of our mind, what lies in our mind. This is one fact that I show.

    What does one who loves want? He always wants to see the Master. He loves everything of the Master's. I was just talking about one man who attended a Pacific conference here some years ago. He was a minister of Korea, and he came here to the Ashram and was initiated. He was so much intoxicated that he would embrace all the walls and the trees of the Ashram. He would say, these are very beautiful, very loving. Why? for the sake of the Master of course. Love beautifies everything; it is but natural. Another time, one man telephoned me from America. "All right, what do you want?" I asked him. "I simply want to hear your voice, nothing else. Just talk about something," he replied. I said, "What do you want? tell me." "No, no, I just want to hear your voice." For about one hour he continued like that, he just wanted to hear my voice. You know how much that hour's telephone call must have cost him? I think no less than ...... , an ordinary telephone call costs about thirty or forty Rupees at least, only for a few words. That means at least $200.00 or even more than that.

    So that is but natural. If he has got love, everything will appeal to him. There is a story in India about one Majnu, who was very fond of Laila. One day, he came across a dog and began to kiss its feet and hug it. People asked him, "What are you doing?" "Oh, ! have seen this dog going into the lane of my beloved Laila," he replied. This is love, it is but natural.

    So it is said that those eyes that do not see the Master should be taken out. Those ears that do not hear the voice of the Beloved, it would be better if they were deaf. That head is blessed that bows down to the feet of the Beloved. Guru Nanak and Shamas Tabrez said that those arms should be broken that do not embrace the Master. So these are the feats of love. What does a lover want? Naturally to be near to the Master, the God in Him of course. He wants to listen to every word that the Master utters. He will follow it at any cost. "If ye love me, keep my commandments''. These things follow as a matter of course, I would say. He who loves, will follow what the Master says, whether he is in the Master's presence or away. The Master is Word personified. Whether the disciple is thousands of miles away, he is still being watched, because the Master is the Word made manifest. Sometimes the Master also manifests physically. So just meet with the wishes of the Beloved. This is what love does. And what does it cost? It costs nothing. It asks only that you should have your whole attention riveted on the Beloved. All other things will follow naturally.

    Again this question comes, "What is love? Where is it? What does it want? How can it be developed?" This is what I explained yesterday. If you love somebody, he is always in your mind. If you keep somebody always in your mind, naturally you will feel attracted to him. When somebody comes to you and speaks of the Master, you take him as your true relative. So this is a feat of love. The most practical and competent way in which you can develop it is just to sit in the radiation of somebody who is overflowing with the love and intoxication of God. This is the quickest and most natural way of being, what you say, infected. You will get infected by the society of the Master, who is overflowing with the love of God. And what does it cost? It costs nothing. The Beloved wants that the lover should not look to anybody, not to hear anybody, not to think of anybody, except the Beloved. This is the feat of love. The man who has got such a love, why should he return to the world? He may return as a Teacher, as a Master, to bring back the children of God to His Home. But He will never come as a prisoner, as the reaction of the past, being attached to the world. So this is the feat of love and what it gives us.

    Your attention is divided in so many ways. It is just like a pipe that has so many holes. When the water flows through the pipe, it will ooze out from each hole drop by drop. If you close all the holes except one, the water will shoot forth. So if our love, which is now divided into so many things, is withdrawn from outside and only one avenue is left, to God or the God-in-man, naturally it will shoot forth. Love is already innate in our souls, it is simply divided in so many things,-- in the body, in enjoyments, in children, for the name and fame of the world. If we just keep one hole open and direct our love there, naturally it will be detached from the others. That will work wonders.

    Any words coming from the Master will be charged with His love and will radiate that love. Why do people come from thousands of miles to be here ? What for? To look at the Master, to hear His words. They can of course have the same effect even thousands of miles away, just by turning their attention towards the Master. Kabir says that if the Master lives across the ocean and you live this side, you should just direct your attention towards Him. You will get the same benefit. But even if you have that, you cannot overrate the first hand experience of having the company of the Master. So this is the feat of love. When that is developed in the body, naturally everything else will follow of itself.
When suchlike people come to the world, the world is flooded with love, because by infection, by radiation, you get the same thing. When you sit by floes of ice, naturally you get cold. If you sit by a fire, you will have heat. So if you sit by somebody who has got love and bliss of God inside of him, naturally you will have an infection like that. If you sit by a man who is dyed with lust, contempt for others, retaliation, and so many other things, naturally you will have heat, not cold. That is why the company of the Saints has been so highly spoken of by them. When you sit by somebody, that society has the same effect by radiation.

    God is love, our soul is love and the way back to God is also through love. All reading of scriptures, performances of one ritual or another, is for what? So that you may have your attention directed to God. Your love which is distributed in so many ways should be one-pointed only for that reason. If that is not the result, then all your outward penances are fruitless. To speak of love is one thing, to have that love in your heart is something else. I told you yesterday that it is a subject of heart, not of head. The head may be there to understand, that's all, but we have to develop love. So you cannot reach God except through love. This love is developed as I already explained to you yesterday and have further explained today. These are the things which we have to see whether we have got in our souls, developed in our own selves. Just by touching some object, going to some place, or just singing and this and that, won't do. Just see how far you have developed love within you for God. When you think of God, or have love for God or the God-in-man, naturally you will develop those very attributes which He personifies. To hear the Sound Principle of God is just like cutting a crop and putting it in one place to have all the grain out of it. That place then becomes an abode of all the grain. If you see the Light of God or hear the Voice (Sound Principle) of God, all virtues will become embedded in you. You will have all virtues only by coming into contact with the Sound or Light of God. These things follow naturally. Here we lack, we put in less time. We put in more time for the outward things.

    So first of all, you should have God consciousness all through, first personal, then universal. We care more for ritual and outward performances than the love of God. This is deterioration. Blessed are those penances or rituals, by performing which, you develop love in you for God. It is only for His sake that you perform all rituals. They are good actions of course and will react in goodness, but not in God. So remain in any country, in any school of thought, that makes no difference. The difference lies in how far you have developed love for God. Those rituals, those penances which have helped you in developing love for God are blessed. So the company of the Saints is most needed. The society of good people will naturally develop goodness in you. The society of spiritual men will develop spirituality in you. That is why it is said that a man is known by the company he keeps. So this is the feat of love. The more you develop in this way the more you are blessed, the more you are making the best use of your life. If not, then you are just taking up a way that will bring you back again and again to the world. So blessed is the man who meets with the Master, who sows the seed of Naam within you. The seed of Naam, once planted, cannot be destroyed. If you just come in contact constantly with Naam, you will have love for God. You will be detached from the world. Even the man who has just been initiated has got the seed of Naam within him. He has got some capital to start with. If he has not developed it in his life, forgotten it, he will have to come back, but not below the level of man, because in the man-body only can that seed flourish. What is the use of coming back, even as a man? Why not put in more time and develop that thing which you have got already. You can develop more love for God or the God-in-man by following His instructions. Then you are not to come back. The more you advance in the earthly life, the higher will be the plane that you will go to.

    So put in more time please, to your practices. Develop love for God within you. You will be blessed. You will have made the best use of your life. We have got oceans of talk, but how many grains of action? An ounce of practice is better than tons of theory. So -- "Wanted -- reformers, not of others, but of themselves". An example is better than precept. This is what is needed. We simply take to the outer rituals and do not care for the purpose for which they were meant. People will even lay down their lives for their performance, but forget God, for whom they were meant. That is deterioration, truly speaking. The highest religion is to develop love of God and God consciousness within you; to be in His Holy Presence, I would say. He is everywhere; where is He not? We are having our very being in Him. The question only remains of opening the eye to see Him. That eye is opened by the Master. He gives you a contact with the God-into-Expression Power, which is the Light and Sound Principle. The more you put in time, all virtues will become embedded in you. So just see where you stand.